Miami University partners with Cuyahoga Community College, opens new doors for transfer students

Miami University recently announced a partnership with Cuyahoga Community College in Northeast Ohio.

The two-year institution, known as Tri-C, will partner with Miami to make the transition from community college to a traditional university easier for students. The transfer program offers students with a minimum 2.0 GPA and an associates degree guaranteed admission to Miami as well as academic advising, access to special transfer events and priority consideration for Miami transfer scholarships.

This partnership mimics the structure of Miami's partnerships with three other community colleges: Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Columbus State Community College and Sinclair Community College.

According to the transfer student page on Miami's website, partnerships with community colleges are intended to create a seamless transition from a two-year to a four-year university, aiming to help students acclimate socially, financially and academically.

One of the resources Miami offers partnership transfer students is comprehensive advising from both Miami and the community college, helping students plan their transition to Miami, understand their schedules and build a network of support throughout the university.

Miami also offers partnership transfer students priority consideration for transfer scholarships, which range from $1,500 to $10,000 per year and are both need-based and academic merit-based. This is a strong motivator for many students as it is "much less expensive to start at a community college and transfer to a four year school," Tri-C wrote on their website.

Many colleges across the country have similar community college programs in place, typically with local community colleges, such as the program at Ohio State University, which partners with neighboring Central Ohio Technical College. Miami's program is unique because several of their partner schools are located multiple hours away, like Tri-C, which is about four hours from Miami's Oxford campus.

"Transfer partnerships help Ohio students who may not have thought of attending a university like Miami know that with a strong start at a community college, they can achieve a bachelor's degree here," Director of University News and Communications Claire Wagner said.

In the past three years, over 600 Tri-C students have transferred to Miami individually and not through a partnership. This agreement will create more of a direct pathway between the schools, which will make the benefits from the program readily available to a greater number of students, according to a Tri-C press release.

The agreement "focuses on more seamlessly integrating the two institutions," which are "two of the largest educational providers in Northern and Southwest Ohio," according to a Miami press release.

The schools aim to strengthen each other through this integration to benefit the institutions as well as the students themselves through combining unique opportunities offered by each school individually.

"It's our goal, and the state's goal, to help more Ohioans achieve higher education and successful careers," Wagner said. "Having transfer partnerships is one way to do that."