Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society has named Lee University in its 2020 Transfer Honor Roll, which is a recognition given to schools with exemplary pathways for supporting transfer students.
The Transfer Honor Roll recognizes four-year colleges and universities that have developed transfer pathways that lead to excellence and success among community college transfer students. The colleges are selected based on their Transfer Friendliness Rating, which is determined by the Transfer Profile they create in PTK Connect. The top 25 percent of highest-rated colleges are named to the Transfer Honor Roll.
“The Transfer Honor Roll reflects the growing importance of recognizing and responding to the needs of transfer students,” said Phi Theta Kappa President and CEO Dr. Lynn Tincher-Ladner.
PTK Connect is Phi Theta Kappa’s online tool that helps students find their best-fit colleges, career pathways, and more. Students can search for colleges by name, scholarship offerings, or cost, and use the institutions’ profiles to help evaluate enrollment options.
“After graduating with my associate's degree from a community college, I was unsure of my next steps,” said Hannah Plantholt, a Lee transfer student and PTK scholarship recipient. “Lee accepted all my credits and provided an ample amount of scholarship opportunities, including one for being a member of Phi Theta Kappa. Lee was the right choice for me.”
Due to restrictions enforced amid the recent pandemic, Lee switched to virtual instruction during its spring semester, but expects to welcome students back to campus before fall semester.
“Lee University is pleased to be named to the Phi Theta Kappa Transfer Honor Roll once again this year,” said Phil Cook, vice president for enrollment at Lee. “The transfer pathways provide a seamless transition into the academic programs at Lee, and the scholarship opportunities provide access for all Phi Theta Kappa recipients. There has never been a better time for transfer students to enroll at Lee.”
Colleges utilizing PTK Connect can complete a Transfer Profile which asks questions about admissions practices, cost of attendance, campus life, recruitment practices, and peer reviews. It is meant to reflect what the transfer student experience is like at their colleges, as well as the strategies colleges are taking to support and enroll transfer students. The profile immediately gives colleges a Transfer Friendliness Rating they can use internally to gauge how friendly their admissions and recruitment strategies are.
“PTK Connect and the Transfer Profile are one of a kind—no other resource specifically focuses on supporting transfer students and sharing data relevant exclusively to this population of students,” said Christin Grissom, Phi Theta Kappa’s vice president of scholarship and membership.
Through a unique partnership with the National Student Clearinghouse, colleges can have data from the Clearinghouse automatically populated into their Transfer Profiles each year. Students can see some of this data on the colleges’ profiles, enabling them to assess what the college does to support transfer students, see the number of transfer students enrolled at that college, and determine whether the school could be a good fit. The Transfer Profile also serves as a resource colleges can use when evaluating their admissions and recruitment practices to create new strategies to better support the transfer student population.
“Lee University looked my fears of not finding a home or a sense of belonging directly in the eyes and proved them to be completely futile,” said Clayton Grainger, a Lee transfer student and PTK scholarship recipient. “Not only was I immediately included in the Lee family, I was embraced whole-heartedly."
Though Lee University has welcomed more than 70 PTK students since fall 2018, the honor roll is based on how the university serves all transfer students.
"Transfer students are a critical part of the Lee University family and contribute so much to the academic, social, and spiritual environment of our campus,” said Cook. “We are quite proud of their success at Lee, and we look forward to the arrival of all our students this fall.”
Phi Theta Kappa is the premier honor society recognizing the academic achievement of students at associate degree-granting colleges and helping them to grow as scholars and leaders. The society is made up of more than 3.5 million members and nearly 1300 chapters in 11 nations, with approximately 240,000 active members in the nation’s colleges.
For more information about Phi Theta Kappa, visit ptk.org.
For more information about Lee University, visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/admissions/.