Interaction between the Community College and High Schools: What the College Can Do To Attract Better-Prepared Students.

This paper describes Pennsylvania's Bucks County Community College's (BCCC's) current practices for recruiting better-prepared students as a preface to several suggestions for new approaches to improve the recruitment effort. Although a nationwide survey of young people indicated that 60% felt two-year institutions were on a par with four-year schools, most students attend community college because of the low cost, the open-door admissions policy, and the proximity to home or work. For students not necessarily concerned with these issues, BCCC's policy of recruitment has had only limited success. This policy currently includes publicity efforts, student visits to the campus, and academic programs such as the Advanced Placement Program and the High School Enrichment Program, through which better-prepared high school students can take college classes for credit. Suggestions for improving BCCC's recruitment of these students include: (1) improving interaction with the high schools through personalized visits by the faculty or department-sponsored tours of the college; (2) offering an Honors Program in which outstanding students in all fields can undertake independent study for honors credit; (3) using BCCC students as liaisons to their former high schools; (4) establishing articulation agreements with four-year colleges and universities that would make transfer automatic, with all credits accepted, for the bearer of an associate degree with a reasonable grade point average; (5) improving the quality of incoming students through more stringent admissions policies or a testing service which reports back to high schools to inform them of their students' level of preparation; and (6) sharing facilities, such as libraries and laboratories, with advanced high school students. (JMC)