VALLEY COLLEGE : Transfer Program Shows Results

A Valley College program is helping students gain admission to top universities, despite tougher admission requirements and fewer places for incoming upper-division students at four-year colleges.

The Transfer Alliance Program (TAP), formerly the honors program, guarantees students “priority consideration” for admission to UCLA, USC, UC Santa Cruz, Pepperdine University and other schools, said Joseph Frantz, the program’s coordinator.

Also, some of the universities guarantee financial aid to students who have completed the transfer program.

TAP was established seven years ago when there was a shortage of upper-division students at area universities, Frantz said. Although that is no longer the case, the program has proved so successful it has been continued, he said.

Several components of the program prepare students for successful transfers. The most important, Frantz said, are the program’s classes that have the same formats as upper-division courses and are structured to include more writing assignments.

Currently, 226 Valley students are participating in the program. They must complete either four or six TAP classes, depending on their fields of study, and maintain a 3.0 grade point average, Frantz said.

Two years ago, a Ford Foundation study at UCLA found that students who had completed the transfer program were more successful overall than other students and held higher grade point averages, Frantz said.

In the last five years, Frantz said, 100% of students who successfully completed the program at Valley and applied to UCLA were accepted by the university. Among students who did not participate in the program, only 45% were accepted, he said.