Duke joins initiative facilitating community college transfers

Duke is joining a new initiative seeking to ease the process of transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions.

As part of the American Honors program, Duke will encourage transfer candidates who have successfully completed the program’s honors curriculum to apply to Duke. The University is among more than three dozen other universities participating in the American Honors program—which include institutions like Swarthmore College, Wellesley College and Georgia Institute of Technology.

In a Duke News press release, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag noted that the University has only been able to admit a small number of transfer students from community colleges in the past.

“We’re encouraged that programs like American Honors will give an opportunity for outstanding students who’ve taken this path to continue their education at Duke and other exceptional universities,” Guttentag said in the release.

According to its website, the program accepts candidates through an application process and charges a program tuition fee in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, on top of regular community college tuition.

Although Duke is currently the only North Carolina university part of the American Honors program, the University of North Carolina system has similar programs in place to prepare community college students for transferring into UNC schools.

As of now, the honors curriculum is available at only seven community colleges across the country. The program website, however, states that there will be more to come. The member colleges include Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, Navarro College in Texas, Jackson College in Michigan, Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, Union County College in New Jersey, Pierce College in Washington and the Community Colleges of Spokane in Washington.