TU and Harford Community College sign dual admissions program agreement
By Sarah Sternhagen, Editor-in-Chief
Towson University and Harford Community College signed an agreement for a guaranteed dual admission enrollment pathway from Harford to Towson University in Northeastern Maryland (TUNE).
The program will start accepting students in spring of next year. Students can enter Harford with the intention of transferring to one of TUNE’s bachelor degree programs after they have completed an associates degree at Harford.
A dedicated admissions counselor from TU is assigned to participating students from the beginning to make sure the transfer process is seamless.
“We’re going to be basically overseeing their academic journey while they’re at community college,” Associate Director of Transfer University Admissions Jennifer Mercer said.
TU and Harford already had a strong partnership with transfer students. With TUNE just down the road from Harford’s campus, its transfer student population is made up of 83% Harford transfers. TU’s main campus also gets 15%-18% of its transfer students from Harford as well, according to Mercer.
The initial meetings to create the program started in Spring 2023 when Harford’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Hans Cooper met with leadership at TUNE.
“I actually believe in the transforming power of education, and a lot of that’s access,” Cooper said. “One of the struggles that I know my students experience is in access to certain colleges like Towson.”
It’s common practice to earn college credit at a community college, then transfer to a four year university in order to save money. But, every college’s curriculum and requirements are slightly different. As Cooper said, it can be tough when a student earns 30 or 60 credits, but their four year college only accepts half of those credits.
“I hate those kinds of experiences. And so I wanted to do something that I thought would be more seamless and more beneficial, and more student centered,” Cooper said.
TU officially announced the partnership on July 29 in a joint statement signed by both institutions’ presidents. Towson also reached a similar agreement with the Community College of Baltimore County in 2022, The Towerlight reported.
