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The Transfer Credit Center |
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| Transfer Times, Dateline: October 1999 |
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October 1999 Volume 6, Number 1
TCC Anniversary: We Look Back--and Forward! On 1 August 1999, the Transfer Credit Center at the University of Maryland reached an important milestone: 5 years of service. During this time, the TCC (a joint-venture between the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of the Registrar) has worked with advisors and students both on campus and off to ease the transition of new transfers into the UM campus community. Part of our initiative this year has been to foster the determination of equivalencies for gateway courses to limited enrollment programs (LEPs); we hope to aid prospective students to prepare more fully for their upper-level course work. In addition, we will shortly be posting additional guidelines accessible through our web pages that will function as Recommended Transfer Programs for these LEPs. This year, with nearly 138,000 course equivalencies in the database, the Center reached a new benchmark by increasing the total equivalencies in our record by almost 20,000 courses (about 17%) over last semester. With credit for over 3,200 students coming through the TCC this Fall alone, we estimate that now nearly 60% of all new credit posted to student records will receive an "instant" equivalence via the information posted in our database. Congratulations to all of you for helping us make this happen! Just like our newsletter, TCC on the Web will shortly have a new look. We hope to make our links more useful as we recognize and rename them to make them more intuitive and easier to navigate. Is there a link you'd like to see? Is there some information about the transfer credit articulation process you don't understand? If you have suggestions for improvements to our web site, this is the time to make them! Call or email tccinfo@deans.umd.edu. Throughout this newsletter, you will find the word "new" with frightening regularity: new prelim, new footnotes, new FS flags, new staff (Hi Glenn!), new look for the newsletter and the web site, access to new software, new transfer institutions in Maryland, and new AP Calculus programming. Remember, this is an "irregular" newsletter, in that we only put it out when we have something to say. So we have not included a lot of reminders about the way the TCC works, or tips and tricks for using/reading the database. That's "old" news, and our past newsletters are available via the web site: http://www.tce.umd.edu/tr-eq-tt.html. Additional Fundamental Studies Flags Added to Master Summary Screen To help with the coding/tracking of how Maryland transfer students are meeting their fundamental studies English requirement, two new FE designations will now begin to show up in SRECORD and on unofficial transcripts. While a "T" still indicates that the student has fulfilled the requirement with an equivalent transfer course, a "P" notes a requirement met via a Portfolio review conducted by our Freshman Writing Office. An "M" means that we are complying with Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) guidelines stating that students of record at a MD "sending" institution will receive general education credit at a MD "receiving" institution if they have completed designated courses--or their equivalents. In other words, if a student attends a MD public institution that grants FE credit for an Advanced Placement score of "2" on the English Language and Composition exam, the state requires that we waive our FE requirement. The TCC is cooperating with campus offices tracking students who meet FM and FE requirements via MHEC-only designations, but at least for now, such exceptions are a rarity. Advisors who encounter students with such designations may wish to advise them carefully about their preparation for other required writing/abstract thinking courses. As many of you have undoubtedly heard, Catonsville, Dundalk, and Essex Community Colleges have recently joined certain resources to become the Community College of Baltimore County. This institution is currently listed in our institution database as 52CCBC. Students enrolled in one or more of the three campuses will submit a unified transcript that lists courses undertaken before the change as "legacy" courses. The transcript will list course IDs from the former institution, e.g., Catonsville Community College, then new CCBC course IDs for the latter part of their academic career. Courses beginning Fall 99 and after will have the 4-alpha-3 numeric CCBC code, while courses taken before then will normally use the 3 alpha-3 numeric IDs of the individual colleges. There is not necessarily a simple one-to-one equivalency among the various colleges. Currently, institution code 52CCBC includes as many of the newly renumbered courses as are presently available. Since CCBC was unable to implement its new transcripts at the same time it renumbered courses for its three campuses, for the present, we have included many of the renumbered courses under each community college's heading as well. In the coming months, we will be sending evaluation requests for newly designed and modified courses offered by the combined institution, and we will begin removing CCBC designators from the Catonsville, Dundalk, and Essex databases as we understand how all courses will be listed. As ever more schools seek to automate all of their record-keeping, they purchase software from leading developers like PeopleSoft, Banner, etc. Because these programs often require "standard" course IDs of a specific alphanumeric form, the schools are renumbering their catalogs. We formerly encountered mass renumbering only rarely, perhaps when a quarter school switched to semester, but recently changes have accelerated, and we are scrambling to keep up. Joining our growing list are regional feeder schools like the American University, Catholic University, and Howard Community College as well as schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Indiana. Often we are alerted to the problem by advisors who notice that a fairly well known school has no equivalencies posted in a newly-transferred student's record. We generally call the registrar to confirm the effective date as well as the reason for the change. We need to determine whether courses should be reevaluated (substantial reorganization or curricular redesign), merely added to the database (new numbers will co-exist on transcripts with old numbers, depending on the semester the course is taken), or renumbered (new numbers totally replace old numbers for all students). Information on renumbered institutions will be posted in our database and on the WWW at www.tce.umd.edu as it becomes available. As we work to keep these entries up to date, we appreciate your patience if we have sent course descriptions on courses that have been merely renumbered, not redesigned. Since both changes do take place, we want to be sure we have the most current information available to you and on the web. Advisors, don't forget that both you and your advisees may contact the TCC via our email list at tccinfo@deans.umd.edu. Since all TCC staff have access to the list, you may get a faster answer if one of us are not available for any reason. Please include the student's ID number (no hyphens), first and last names, the institution and course in question, and the semester it was taken for fastest service. If we need to consult the student's recorder or another department, we will copy you on our progress. If you are merely looking to clarify the number of credits offered, or whether the course offered a lab, etc., especially for students seeking "Permission to Enroll," there is an exciting new web site available where this information can be easily found (See Access to CollegeSource below). Good news! CollegeSource, the CD ROM-based college catalog software, is now online and available through the World Wide Web. As of June this year, the University System of Maryland has purchased usage rights (for one year) for all faculty and staff at USM member institutions. Access to this important tool is a serious factor in the record-breaking number of equivalencies posted this year (see TCC Anniversary article below). The program gives access to thousands of current and recent past catalogs at (domestic only) institutions as well as a portal to many institutional web sites, should you desire additional information. Of course, we expect to continue pulling course descriptions and sending them as we have in the past, but if you wish to make a quick check of pre-requisites or course-sequencing, you may wish to take CollegeSource for a test drive. Since the newest version of this software service is a bit different from its prior release (namely, it is now 100% web-based), the Transfer Credit Center is offering a brief training session to anyone interested in learning how to use it. If you are interested, contact Glenn Kirksey; he will be happy to schedule a short overview with you. In some cases, we can walk you through it by phone. Starting this year, the College Board has begun reporting the AB sub scores for all students taking the Calculus BC examination. To accommodate this change in reporting, and to avoid any confusion from students bringing in score reports at later dates which show this information, the Office of the Registrar will now list both scores for the Calculus BC examination on student transcripts at the time of initial posting. You will note that the AB sub score is listed on student transcripts as "not applied" whenever a BC score of 3 or higher is already present. In addition, our program should treat any Calculus AB score on the student's record as duplicate credit when the BC score qualifies for a credit award. Campus advisors--don't forget! For instant record-keeping and an electronic "paper-trail" of how you are adjusting a particular student's record, use the TRANAPP screen to denote which courses your advising college has declared "non-applicable" or "repeat/duplicate credit." Designated advisors in each college have access to the TRANAPP screen, and we will be happy to train you in its use if necessary. TRANAPP can be especially helpful during orientation season when you are preparing for students to arrive and you want to be sure their records reflect the 60/90 transferable credit rule from 2yr/4yr institutions. New Preliminary Evaluation Letter The Preliminary Evaluation Letter has gotten a face-lift. One significant change is that we have changed all previously "blank" equivalencies to read "course under review"--which more accurately reflects the current status of the student's credit. We also take the opportunity to further remind students to send final official transcripts showing any additional work completed by the time they begin classes here. In due course, these changes may eliminate some of the anxiety surrounding the evaluation process as well as some last-minute difficulty students face when they realize an important piece of their credit is still unavailable for departmental review. TCEQ Now Tracks "Mystery" Courses Good news! In an effort to improve our ability to follow up on course evaluations returned from campus departments with "insufficient information" or "syllabus required", the TCC has begun tracking these courses in the TCEQ database by inserting them with a temporary "NS" (for "needs syllabus") footnote code. We hope this will alleviate any student confusion arising from potential delays in completing equivalencies. Further, since it will be used in limited instances--generally FS courses or major/pre-requisite courses, we will be able to identify cases where additional intervention is needed to resolve the question in a timely fashion. Courses appearing in red have special, non-standard footnotes attached. To view these notes, cursor up to the course in question, F5, place an "X" on the note line and enter. We try to keep these special notes to a minimum, but the information may be critical. These "red" courses should also carry the footnote "99" alerting you to the additional coursenote. The University of Maryland has embarked on a 3 year pilot program to accept credits from the Maryland College of Art and Design (MCAD). Course descriptions and syllabi have been scrutinized by our faculty, and we now have a limited articulation agreement in place. Students who wish to transfer from MCAD will be treated like students from private institutions of higher learning. We expect a limited number of enrollees, and we will be following their progress carefully, with annual reports to the Provost, to the Dean for Undergraduate Studies, and to Maryland College of Art and Design. It is with an abundance of mixed feelings that we note Mary Bell's departure for a position as Assistant Director in the Registrar's Office at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Mary provided so much service and so many smiles to students and advisors that it is hard to think of the Transfer Credit Center without her anchoring a desk. Her absolute competence and indefatigable good cheer were mainstays of the TCC, but we are happy to note that she has moved on to greater challenge as well as her own personal office. Mary, we wish you well. And Hello, Glenn The Transfer Credit Center is proud to introduce Glenn Kirksey, its newest staff member. Glenn is a born and bred Maryland Terrapin (and a transfer student!), graduating in 1996 with a degree in Anthropology. He knows some Japanese and more than a little Spanish; he has worked at the University for the past three years, first as an advisor, then as an admissions counselor, and now in our office. We are extremely fortunate to be able to acquire someone with such broad experience to work in TCC, and Glenn's sensitivity to advising issues and admissions policies should stand us in good stead. I know he has met many of you already in his new capacity--he joined us in May. He is certainly looking forward to meeting many more of you in the upcoming months as he will be performing training functions in addition to day-to-day tasks. Glenn may be reached directly at gkirksey@deans.umd.edu or 301.314.8256. His enthusiasm and fresh perspective will enable us to continue advancing our quality of service. Please join the TCC in welcoming Glenn, and do not hesitate to contact him with questions--or suggestions-- as you work with current or prospective transfer students.
Mitchell Building, University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742
Theresa DiPaolo phone: (301) 314-8413; fax: (301) 314-9693; email: tdipaolo@deans.umd.edu |
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