College Transfer Fair transforms student opportunities

James McCraw, Reporter/Office Manager 

Representatives from 20 universities attended the fall transfer fair, which was on Oct. 26 in the College Center.

The fair provided options available to students interested in further pursuing higher education after leaving Pierce College. Schools from along the west coast attended and multiple representatives were available to talk to students and give them advice about options for their future.

Christine McMullin, director of advising and entry services for Pierce College, helped coordinate the event. She said she’s always looking for feedback from students about these events, which are held each quarter. Being able to physically spend time with the representatives is something that’s important to help demystify the process of transferring.

Students Taylor White and Jaycee Deyoe were excited to attend the fair and talk with representatives from various colleges, with Central Washington University being at the top of their lists.

“You get to see all your options,” White said. “I didn’t even know some of these colleges existed.”

Karlie Hill, an admissions counselor at CWU, said she enjoys coming to events like these because she’s passionate about Central and because she’s an alumna of the college. She also said honesty is a positive thing when talking to potential students.

“Transferring to a university gives students a chance to grow beyond a two-year degree,” Megan Daniels, a student services coordinator for Evergreen State College, said.

According to McMullin, events like this are planned by the public and private universities in Washington who are part of a Washington counsel association. They get together as early as a year ahead of time to plan their dates each quarter.

Pierce officials are looking to get more out of state schools for winter and spring transfer fairs to expand options for students, McMullin said.

Due to Pierce’s high number of international students, McMullin’s been talking to the international education department officials about coordinating those efforts.

Pierce is working with University of Washington Seattle to have a day for information sessions to help students with more in depth questions, similar to the Transfer Tuesday Sessions they have on their campus. McMullin says the two colleges are currently working on finding a date for this event.

“If nothing else, (this event) gives students an idea of possibilities and a chance to actually ask a question face -to-face with somebody from that school,” McMullin said. “Especially for a student who isn’t at all sure what they may want to do after Pierce, even as far as majors go, or even if they do want to continue on. Being able to physically collect information rather than being only on the web or only digital resources.”

The Puyallup Post is the award-winning student news of Pierce College Puyallup in Puyallup, Washington. Copyright The Puyallup Post 2017. Twitter/Instagram @puyalluppost

• About
• Latest Posts

James McCraw

Office Manager/Reporter at The Puyallup Post

Hello faithful readers! My name is James McCraw and I’m one of the newest members of The Puyallup Post! I am supposed to tell you all a bit about myself, and here is what I thought of.I am 29 years old, and I was in the Navy for six years. I decided to come to Pierce to get my transfer degree in order to go to my dream college (hopefully) and study Journalism. I am originally from Arizona, but I spent most of my childhood in Oregon. I moved to Washington when I got out of the Navy because my wife is originally from Yakima. My passion (and slight obsession) is comic books. I have been collecting them since I was five years old and my dream job is to be a comic book editor for a major comic book company. Thank you for sticking around long enough to get to this point! I love to meet new people, so if you ever decide to come and say hello I will be more than willing to say hello back!

Latest posts by James McCraw (see all)

• Student’s short story sells 50k copies - June 12, 2017
• Business Club invites Costco Executive VP to Pierce - May 25, 2017
• The Fate of the Furious predictable - May 25, 2017