Prospective Ohio State students are set to have access to a new, free tool to gauge how well their college credits from high school and other public institutions will transfer to OSU, something at least one current student said would have been helpful.
Transferology, an online network operated by CollegeSource Inc. that is set to begin Monday, allows students to enter their existing coursework, exams and military learning experience into its system and generate a list of colleges and universities in the network best matched for that student.
These matches are ranked by the percentage of coursework the potential universities would accept in the form of transfer credits, said Troy Holaday, president of CollegeSource.
Holaday said the website, a revamped version of its predecessor, u.Select, aims to get information to students more efficiently.
“U.Select gave students information through an eyedropper. You had to pick a specific school and look at transfer scenarios only one school at a time. Transferology can show you many all in one go, how they rank in terms of credits, what they accept, and you can dive in from there,” Holaday said.
About 300 schools are in the network so far, with a concentration in the Midwest, Holaday said.
Transferology plans to also offer filters for students to focus their results in terms of distance from the student’s current location, cost and population size, Holaday said.
Michael Gable, assistant registrar at OSU’s Transfer Credit Center, said there is a subscription fee for OSU to use the new site just as there was with u.Select, which OSU was using. This fee is funded by the Ohio Board of Regents, he said.
“OBOR has been paying the fee for all Ohio public schools to use the site for years,” Gable said in an email.
Gable said on the phone the site could help OSU track data on what kind of coursework transfer students are taking at other institutions. If enough students have taken a course that OSU doesn’t already have an equivalency score for, Gable said OSU might consider creating that score.
Vittoria Nikalett, a fourth-year in sociology, transferred to OSU after three semesters at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. With “about 50 credits that don’t count toward anything,” Nikalett said she might not have enrolled at OSU if she used something like Transferology.
“I had to drop my minor and I’ve had to take so many other classes that I already completed at my other institution. I haven’t had as much time to take classes that I like because I have to take time to fill those requirements. I don’t think I would have transferred if I would have known before because it wasn’t the best use of my time,” Nikalett said.
Transferology could benefit students who want to make the most of each semester’s credits, Nikalett said.
“It will help you better plan what classes you can take before you transfer, so they’re more applicable. Also, find better schools that will use your credit hours if you’re interested in graduating in a certain amount of time,” Nikalett said.
Gable said Transferology is set to have a more “user friendly” site design and interface than u.Select and should be most helpful to students who are looking to transfer but don’t have their sights set on just one school.
“If you really want to go to OSU, you probably don’t care about (if) the score transfers, but if you’re a little more up in the air … this could help,” Gable said.
