Tallahassee Community College joins New College of Florida’s transfer student program
Tallahassee Community College recently became an addition to New College of Florida’s transfer student program — a partnered agreement that guarantees select students’ admission to the honors college following significant changes on its campus.
The partnership with “NCF Transform” means that TCC joins eight other colleges that are already a part of the program — St. Petersburg College, Daytona State College, Hillsborough Community College, Lake-Sumter State College, Florida SouthWestern State College, State College of Florida, Santa Fe College and SUNY Orange County in Orange County, New York.
“This new program will provide yet another choice for graduates of TCC who wish to attend Florida’s only public honors college,” TCC President Jim Murdaugh said in a prepared statement. “We are grateful to NCF for their commitment to providing access to a top-quality education for our students.”
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While NCF — located in Sarasota, Florida — began entering guaranteed admissions partnerships in 2019, "NCF Transform" was established as a branded concept for the program in fall 2022.
NCF reached out to TCC regarding a partnership and getting them involved with the program before interim President Richard Corcoran followed up with Murdaugh to finalize the details, according to an NCF spokesperson.
“New College’s transfer path offers excellent educational opportunities to students with a two-year degree wishing to obtain a four-year degree,” Corcoran said in a release. “We are proud to offer this option as a guarantee to students from now nine different colleges.”
But the increased recruiting efforts come after many changes have been made at NCF as a result of Governor Ron DeSantis appointing six new conservative trustees to the college’s Board of Trustees, which led to the push to dismantle NCF’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The drastic change also led to the firing of former NCF President Patricia Okker, who has been replaced by Corcoran, a former education commissioner and Florida House speaker.
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NCF students protested and rallied against their college’s new reality, with some of them going as far as withdrawing from the honors college altogether, according to a Sarasota Herald-Tribune article.
In addition, colleges outside of the state such as Hampshire College of Massachusetts have invited NCF students to enroll into their institutions if they wish to transfer following the recent changes. The admission would come with a tuition match as well.
As part of the NCF transfer program, honors students at TCC who receive their associate degree in arts will be able to transfer to the college while also qualifying for a scholarship worth up to $10,000.
Other perks of the program are the chance for students to have their own faculty advisor as well as their own career coach.
NCF has about 15 students from Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Taylor and Dixie counties who are currently enrolled out of nearly 700 students. So far, an additional 10 students from those counties will join the honors college for fall 2023.
Besides having NCF as a new partner, TCC has existing transfer partnerships with Florida A&M University through the TCC2FAMU Program and Florida State University through the Aspire Transfer Program — formerly known as TCC2FSU — to create pathways to the university level for students.
NCF offers more than 50 undergraduate majors in arts, humanities and sciences while also offering a master’s degree program in applied data science as well as certificates in technology, finance and business skills.
TCC students will be eligible to participate in the honors college's transfer program starting fall 2023.
Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on twitter @tarahjean_.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: TCC partners with New College of Florida’s transfer student program
