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Description
With the presence of intercollegiate athletics on a 4-year college campus, athletics provides students with a reason to attend college and an opportunity to stay connected to the university after they graduate. At what cost is the student-athlete's academic experience compromised if they are not prepared for a 4-year university? The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine what causes student-athletes' Grade Point Averages (GPAs) to change after their first and/or second semesters at the 4-year institution and offer observations and recommendations to strengthen the transfer experience for student-athletes from a community college to a 4-year university. Eight one-on-one interviews with transfer student-athletes provided research and insights into answering the following research questions: 1. In what ways does the transfer shock phenomenon manifest itself among student-athletes who transfer from community colleges to Division I 4-year institutions? 2. How did academic support services impact your transfer experience from the community college to the 4-year institution? 3. What Athletic Department practices and strategies facilitate the success of student-athletes who transfer from community colleges to Division I 4-year institutions? This study focused on student-athletes on scholarship who transferred to a Division I 4-year institution from a community college. One-on-one interviews were conducted on eight transfer student-athletes from four sports which included three male sports and one female sport. The research results provided recommendations for 2- and 4-year institutions on how to make the transfer process for 2-year student-athletes a smoother process which supported academic success. This study was my hope to understand and find an answer the question regarding the transfer shock phenomenon for the student-athlete population to enable student-athletes to have every resource available to them for academic success.
