Transferring from a community college to a 4 year school: Jamestown Community College shows what to do

Submitted by Sandra Porter on Mon, 10/15/2012 - 12:00am

Completing a two-year bioscience degree, or a certificate, at a community college is pretty straightforward. You get a list of courses from the college, you take them, and you get your degree.

But what if you want to continue your education and finish a bachelors degree? That path can be murky.

It's not always clear which colleges will accept the degree from your community college. And it can be hard to tell how your will credits transfer.

Will you have to repeat classes because the classes you took at the community college don't transfer? What should you do?

It sure would be nice to have a road map.

Students attending the biotech program at Jamestown Community College (JCC) are lucky to have just that!

JCC has put up one of the best sites for transferring students that I've ever seen.

How does this work?

1. A student goes to the JCC Transfer Agreement web page and chooses their JCC program.

I picked "biotechnology" in the example below.

2. They click "Search" and they get a list of colleges that accept this major as a transfer degree.

3. They click "View" and they get all the details.

And, even better, if they View the information for a college and click the link to "Download details of agreement," they get the articulation agreement between JCC and the other college.

Not only is this great for students, these articulation agreements would be good examples for other colleges, too.

Does your college have a web page like this? Would you like to have colleges that articulate with yours, listed on your Bio-Link program page?

Complete this form and let us know! Articulation information

Bio-Link Program:

Jamestown Community College

I'm curious about the

Submitted by staff on Tue, 10/16/2012 - 11:01am

I'm curious about the articulation between JCC and RIT. Can students finish their biotech requirements as well as the requirements shown in two years, or do they have to take more than two years' worth of courses to complete the transfer courses as well as the biotech program requirements? A few years ago we lost our transfer agreement with PSU due to changes to their curriculum. They now require more 300-400 level courses and since they do not offer biotech courses, finding enough one-to-one equivalencies is now impossible. As a result, a student has to complete both an AAS and an AA (transfer) degree at PSU to meet transfer requirements and this can take an extra 1-2 quarters.

If you follow the link from

Submitted by Sandra Porter on Tue, 10/16/2012 - 2:16pm

If you follow the link from the Transfer Info page to the page for RIT, they say:

Transfer agreement with Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

For transfer into:

Biotechnology

Start at JCC in:

Biotechnology (Associate in Science)

Guarantees acceptance, and junior standing with the transfer of 60 or more credit hours, of JCC students who graduate with an A.S. Biotechnology and a minimum JCC cumulative grade point average of 2.5. Also guarantees the opportunity to complete the bachelor's degree in four semesters at RIT to students who take courses specified in the agreement as part of their associate's degree. (latest update 2008).

So, as far as I can tell, they should be able to finish in two years if the courses listed in the 2008 agreement are still offered. You can view the detailed agreement.