“I’m pretty bullheaded, and I really wanted to go to college,” says Tara Prevo (left), 29, a junior engineering student who transferred to Portland State from Portland Community College in order to be the first in her family to get a college degree.
Transfer students are a big part of PSU. Half of all undergraduate students have transferred here not only from local community colleges, but from as far away as China. PSU has made it easy, with a streamlined transfer process, a close working relationship with community colleges and the Transfers Finish Free program for low-income students.
Top transfer colleges to PSU
PCC: 38%
Clackamas: 8%
Mt. Hood: 7%
Chemeketa: 5%
Oregon State: 3%
Out of state:
Clark Community College
Changchun University of Tech
DeAnza College (Calif)
Santa Rosa JC (Calif)
Santa Barbara City College, (Calif)
Palomar College (Calif)
University of Alaska, Anchorage
Starting at a community college and transferring to PSU is a more affordable way of earning a university degree, and for many, it's the gateway to make college possible.
In Prevo’s case, college was a way to break into a whole new world of opportunities that were not available to her in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. Escaping the town’s high unemployment rate, she packed up all her belongings in an old pickup and headed west. She landed in Portland and took a series of minimum-wage jobs until she got financial aid to attend PCC.
Prevo was there for three years, earning a series of $5,000 NASA scholarships as she took courses in PCC’s engineering transfer program, which earned her credits to transfer to PSU. Along the way, she worked with advisors both at PCC and PSU to make sure she had everything she needed to make the switch.
“The transfer process was so easy I almost didn’t realize it happened,” she says.
Today, she works on NASA-funded research projects with engineering Professor Mark Weislogel. Having worked on cars with her father throughout her childhood, she thought she wanted to be a technician. Now she’s looking beyond to possible careers in space science or with manufacturers such as Boeing or Daimler.
“I fell in love with engineering,” she says. “I see it as a ladder to something better.”
For Sallie Carnahan (right), 46, transferring to PSU is an essential step in starting her second career.
The Portland native worked in the hospitality industry for 25 years after graduating from the Culinary School of America in Hyde Park, New York. She cooked, sold wine and worked as a consultant in New Orleans and Chicago before moving back to Portland to be closer to family.
“I was getting older and wanted a more sustainable job,” she says. “I always wanted to get a business degree.”
She enrolled at PCC Cascade, where she met a PSU transfer counselor. “He was my conduit. He guided me on how many credits I needed and what kind,” she says.
She got further help from PSU’s TRiO program for low-income students. TRiO has its own program for transfer students, called Transfer Bridge, which helps new students successfully transition into Portland State by connecting them to campus resources, staff, faculty and other students entering the university in the fall.
She got further admissions help from counselors at The School of Business as well as a thorough orientation to the school. The process was so positive that she will continue at PSU to get her master’s in finance after she graduates with her bachelor’s degree in accounting this summer.
“Everybody has been great. I don’t think I could have asked for a better transfer experience,” she says.
Story photos by Peter Simon