Camden County College’s Transfer Fair took place on Wednesday, March 24th,, 2010. The college’s connector building was a colorful sight to see, with representatives from several universities, who had set up tables decorated in their college’s colors. The event was designed to introduce students to different universities and to educate them on the process of transferring. Rutgers, Drexel, Rowan, Widener, Stockton, Jefferson, and the University Of Phoenix were only a few of many colleges that attended this event. With at least one representative from each college present, students were able to personally ask certain questions they had on different subjects, such as, the amount of credits needed, transfer requirements, and financial aid. There were also plenty of pamphlets available with basic information on each university. Having such an extensive amount of people struggling with the economy today, financial aid was a popular topic to discuss with representatives. Nicole Onofrio, Corporate Education Liaison of the University of Phoenix, says “What we typically do is assign each student a dedicated financial counselor, and they’ll review with them to see if they will qualify for financial aid, and if they do not, they’ll work with them to find other ways of funding whether it be loans, grants, or scholarships.” Generally, transfer students today make up about 20-40% of student populations at universities. Onofrio adds that “It’s a great tool to save some money and also get general classes out of the way, and if for some reason, you don’t want to transfer over, at least you will still have a nice base, whether it is for work, or for your own personal goals.” Courtney Kelly, representative of Widener University, says “It depends on the major, but it does benefit the student to transfer at least after their first year. Then there are some other majors here at Widener that we have a lot of flexibility with transfer credits, so staying to earn an Associates Degree is a great opportunity and it’s less expensive.” From 10am at the start of the event, to the ending of the event at 2pm, the students were short from being shy to gain the information they came for. Hopefully, when students left the transfer fair at 2pm, they were encouraged to continue on to four year institutions, realizing that their futures hold infinite possibilities, and positive outcomes, which was the overall purpose of this event.
