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USM launches one-stop shop for community college students
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - A four-year degree in Maryland is just a point and click away.
The University System of Maryland recently announced the launch of Maryland TransPort, a Web site designed as a one-stop shop for community college students seeking to transfer to four-year institutions.
“[The site] is educating students,” said Stephanie Fowler, the associate director of admissions at Towson University. “It directs them to everything.”
Students can enter course information on the site to determine which institutions and programs accept their credits, according to the University System of Maryland.
The site also provides scholarship and tuition information for Maryland’s public and private colleges and universities.
“We felt that if we could put [all the information] together in one place, we could make the transfer process much smoother,” said Teri Hollander, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University System of Maryland.
Knowing which credits will go toward a four-year degree will be helpful for community college students trying to budget their time and money, Fowler said.
“The better informed that students are about the transfer process, the easier it is,” she said in a statement.
Hollander said accommodating community college transfer students, a growing segment of the University System of Maryland’s population, is an important goal.
Every year about 61 percent of Maryland’s graduating high seniors enter the state’s community colleges, according to the Maryland Association of Community Colleges.
The number of community college students transferring to University System of Maryland institutions has risen 20 percent since 2000, and more than half of the system’s transfer students now come from Maryland community colleges, Hollander said.
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For more information, visit Maryland TransPort at mdtransfer.usmd.edu.
mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com
