Tim Lum is one of the millions of students who returned to college as adults and earned a two-year degree at their local community college. And this year, at the age of 36, he is one of 13 percent of the country's university students that transferred institutions in the fall of 2023.
He describes the move from a two-year university to the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, which has about 20,000 students, as a culture shock.
“In some ways, it feels like Disneyland: big buildings, lots of people, crowds, lines,” he says. And in the classroom, especially since much of his community college had been online during the pandemic, he worried about whether he would be prepared for the coursework: “I felt like I wasn't smart enough, like that slight feeling of inadequacy. “
Lum arrived on campus excited to be there and eager to immerse himself in class assignments, join student clubs, and get involved. However, to his surprise, many other students seem more disengaged.
“I've talked to a lot of other students who followed the traditional or conventional path, who came to college right out of high school, and I feel like 99 percent of them don't appreciate it or don't appreciate it. Realize how many resources are available to them,” he says.
Research shows he's not alone: Transfer students often tend to be more motivated and engaged than students who come to college directly from high school. And that could be more pronounced after the pandemic, when teachers across the country say students are more likely to miss class, watch TikTok or worry about other distractions during class.
We first spoke to Lum two years ago, when she was in community college and adjusting to college life after years of working in restaurants and feeling directionless, as part of our Second Acts podcast series about adult college students who they come back
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For this week's EdSurge podcast, we tell the story of Lum's adjustment to college life and also hear from a professor who has studied transfer students, Benjamin Selznick, an associate professor at James Madison University's School of Business.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or in the player below.
