Central Lakes College Welcomes New Transfer Program

For students who attend two years at a community college with hopes to transfer to a four-year university, life just became a lot simpler with the new Pathways Program.

“The people of Minnesota have wanted seamless transfer from community colleges to four-year universities for a very long time, ever since the Minnesota State College and University System was formed in the 1990s and we are finally getting much closer to that reality with the new transfer pathway programs,” said Central Lakes College Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Martha Kuehn.

After spending two years in the classrooms at CLC, any students from the program are guaranteed admission to any Minnesota State university with junior standing, given that their GPA qualifies.

“It really changes the game – instead of just asking students if they are going to pursue their liberal arts or general education courses, now we can ask them what major are you planning to do in college and they can start taking classes to get there right from the beginning,” said Nick Heisserer, CLC Admissions and Registration Director.

In order to come up with the final agreement groups of faculty, advisors and deans from community colleges and universities gathered to discuss the most important piece: the students.

“It’s really exciting work to be able to talk with colleagues across the state about what students really need at the two-year level and what the four years are really looking for in the students that come from the two-year schools,” Kuehn said.

The first step in this process is to implement the Psychology Pathways Program starting this fall.

“Well, we have a lot of students that are coming to us and they have a dream in mind, or a goal that they want to achieve, and what this allows them to do is really start at the beginning and say, “well, I’m a psychology major,” and they can start from at the beginning at a community or technical college and start pursuing courses and all of them are going to go right into their major,” Heisserer said.

For some students looking to stay close to home at first, this program will help them begin their journey in higher education.

“It’s a great opportunity for students to start here and get those first two years with some really good instructors. I’m really proud of the degree that we’ve constructed and the faculty that we have teaching and I think it’s a great way for students to start their degree,” Kuehn said.

Psychology is just the beginning of many new Pathway Programs to be added.