The pandemic era was tough for students considering their transfer options. From maintaining the necessary grades from their bedroom to lacking face-to-face guidance on the transfer process to facing the prospect of moving during lockdowns — it all culminated in halting students’ transfer ambitions in their tracks. 

Fast-forward to the 2023-24 academic year, and colleges are seeing a marked bounceback of transfer student enrollments across the US. According to the National Student Clearinghouse, we’re seeing a healthy 5.3% increase YoY.

This is great news for colleges, but a new kind of challenge for college marketers: transfer students come from institutions of all shapes and sizes, and have decided to change colleges for many different reasons. 

The ‘transfer student’ umbrella is broad, so understanding the specific barriers, motivations and attitudes of transferring students is key to building effective marketing and messaging strategies.

Motivations for transferring colleges, either laterally or vertically, will vary. Most students however, are on a spectrum between intentional and circumstantial motivations. Students who attend a 2-year college with the vision of transferring upwards will have steadfast views on what they want from their studies. Students transferring laterally might do so with the intent of getting into a program that they failed to get into the first time they applied.

Incoming transfer student surveys can be an effective tool in understanding what programs are attracting intentional student transfers, so you can tailor the course messaging with the transfer market in mind. 

Circumstantial motivations are of course contextual. A sudden change in a student’s life could result in them needing to move to a more flexible or affordable institution. Or in another case, a student who has had a change of heart may transfer laterally to a school that has a program more aligned with their new-found goals. Marketing to this group of students isn’t easy, as every situation is different and near-impossible to predict.

Due to the varying forms of transfer students, personalizing messaging in the digital format can be tricky. If you’re a 4-year institution, elementary strategies like geo-ring fencing your local community colleges can give you a good starting point in finding upwards and intentional students. However, a limitation of this strategy is that it restricts your targeting to small numbers of personas at a time.

Widening the scope to target students making lateral transfers or looking to return to a new university after stopping out, takes a lot more technological expertise. Using agile content strategies can help personalize ad messaging at scale, resulting in a more diverse audience reached, but in a hyper-personalized way. 

The rebound in transfer student enrollment presents universities with a chance to attract a diverse student body. Although, this doesn’t come without its complexities. Successfully engaging these students requires understanding their unique motivations and overcoming administrative and social integration hurdles. Embracing advanced digital techniques for personalized outreach is key, but this is no easy feat. Gaining the right expertise through a trusted partner can transform the challenge into an opportunity, allowing you to effectively connect with the diverse transfer student market.