5 February 2019
Travis Boren
About a year ago, UCCS began offering tours specific to the experiences of transfer tours. The tours were created to appeal more to the specific needs of transfer students.
Tours are used as a way to encourage prospective students to enroll, according to Transfer Adviser Sean Swallen.
The Jan. 28 tour had eight participants, but Swallen said that tour attendance fluctuates based on day of the week, time of day and time of year. Spring break time is usually really busy.
Swallen said that the transfer student specific tours are more focused on the needs of transfer students, and are designed to not include high school students to make transfer students more comfortable.
“I think transfer students in general are sometimes misunderstood,” said Swallen. “We don’t always know what their stories are.”
Swallen said that transfer tours assume students will not live on campus, so the tours do not focus as much on campus housing.
According to data collected by UCCS’ Institutional Research, based on information from FAFSA filings, around 13 percent of the student body live on campus, 15 percent live off campus with parent(s), 38 percent live off campus and 34 percent are unknown.
One of the prospective students who attended the Jan. 28 tour was Ron Espinoza. Espinoza has a Bachelors of Science in Engineering Technology from New Mexico State University and wants to enroll in UCCS to earn a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science. He also plans to attend graduate school to get a certificate in Engineering Secure Software Systems.
Espinoza choose UCCS as an option because of the Department of Defense connections that the university has, and because Colorado Springs is not as fast paced and busy as the Denver and Aurora area, where he is from.
According to data collected by Institutional Research, 955 transfer students enrolled in the Fall of 2018 out of 1,799 who applied.
The leader for the Jan. 28 tour was Michael Agyei, a senior biology major. Agyei has been conducting UCCS tours for three semesters, and started to develop his personal skills while having the added benefit of a flexible, on campus job.
Transfer tours are more general and focus less on the specifics of college life.
“[Students] on transfer tours already know what the deal is, and they tend to be a little older,” said Agyei. “Every tour is different for me.”
Agyei’s most memorable tour involved a mom who repeatedly asked him, without being upfront, where party spots were around campus.
“She wanted her son to know, which is surprising because usually parents necessarily don’t want their kids to party,” said Agyei.
Agyei’s favorite part of tours is getting people excited about UCCS.
“We always appreciate it when people say ‘hi’ to tours to show how friendly campus is,” said Agyei.