An estimated 4,000 students transfer from Sinclair to another college each year, according to Shawn Rudegeair, an admissions officer at Sinclair Community College.
On March 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sinclair will host a four-year college fair in the library.
The event will give students the opportunity to talk to school representatives about transferring and to gather information to help them select the right school for them, Rudegeair said.
More than 50 colleges will be sending representatives to the event. Rudegeair said that almost every four-year school in Ohio is expected to attend, as well as a number of schools from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The schools coming from farthest away are West Virginia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Sinclair eases the transfer process with articulation agreements with many schools, helping students get credit for their Sinclair courses, but it is important that students get their transfer questions answered “from the source,” Rudegeair said.
Tables will be set up in the main area of the library for each school, and students can talk to transfer counselors familiar with the specific details of the programs available at their schools.
Last year was the first year for the event, and approximately 400 students and 30 schools came. This year, Rudegeair said they “would love to see 1,000 students come…because you can imagine these representatives are traveling far to be here.”
As an added incentive, students who register at the event will be entered into a raffle drawing for “swag items” from the schools, which last year included T-shirts, hats, mugs and backpacks. They will also have the chance to win a $250 book scholarship.
As an inspiration and reminder to students, Rudegeair said that the admissions office has asked every professor and instructor at Sinclair to wear clothing from their alma mater on the day of the event.
“It is a good thing to come here and get an associate’s, but also to have a plan to move on and go get a bachelor’s,” Rudegeair said. “We want students to see what opportunities they have other than simply trying to find a job with their associate’s degree.”