Tim Lamb is one of the millions of students who went back to college as adults and earned a two-year degree at their local community college. And he turned 36 this year. 13% of university students nationwide The institution will be relocated in the fall of 2023.
He describes the transition from a two-year college to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, a school of about 20,000 students, as one of culture shock.
“In a way, it feels like Disneyland: big buildings, lots of people, crowds, lines,” he says. And in the classroom, they worried about whether they would be ready for class, especially since many community colleges were taught online during the pandemic. ”
Lam was excited to come to campus and was eager to work on her class assignments and join and participate in student clubs. But surprisingly, many other students seem to be even less interested.
“I’ve talked to a lot of other students who have taken the traditional or traditional path, which is to say they went to college right out of high school, and 99 percent of them don’t appreciate it. They feel like they don’t have it or they don’t appreciate it. Understand how many resources are available to them,” he says.
Research shows he’s not alone, and transfer students often tend to be more motivated and engaged than students who come to college straight from high school. And that may become even more pronounced due to the pandemic. Professors across the country say students are now more likely to skip class, watch TikTok or get distracted by distractions during class.
We first spoke to Lam two years ago, when he was attending community college and adjusting to college life after years of disorientation working in restaurants. It was part of “Second Acts,” a podcast series about returning students.
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This week on the EdSurge podcast, Lamb tells his story of adjusting to college life and hears from Benjamin Selznick, an associate professor at James Madison University School of Business who has studied transfer students.
Listen to the episode of spotify, apple podcast Or in the player below.
