When Diego Dulanto, 23, evaluated his post–high school education options, community college was the only affordable choice. His parents, both janitors, had moved from Peru to the United States when he was 4 years old in hopes of giving their children a better life, but Dulanto had been uninspired by his high school classes and his future seemed unclear. He enrolled in Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, and after taking a couple of psychology courses, he felt excited about learning for the first time in years. He transferred to the University of South Florida as a junior majoring in psychology, but stress eroded his enthusiasm when Dulanto discovered that most of his peers had already taken research methods and statistics—courses that were not offered at the community college in his major. These classes were needed to secure lab positions on campus, and many of the “native” university students were already working in labs.
“I felt intimidated and anxious, and I wanted to do everything possible to catch up,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep at night and ran myself ragged trying to find research opportunities.” Then one of his community college professors spoke to a colleague at the university and vouched for his excellence as a student—a conversation that helped Dulanto secure a lab position while he took the required research methods classes. Dulanto plans to pursue a doctoral degree in community psychology with a focus on underrepresented populations, but many of his community college peers at the university have not been as fortunate. “I am a special case,” he said. “I have friends who are still having trouble getting into a lab or staying in a lab,” he said.
Stories like this are far too common in psychology departments across the nation, according to community college professors. “I’ve seen many students with great potential who were stymied by the transfer process,” said Todd Joseph, a psychology professor at Hillsborough and president of Psi Beta, the national honor society for psychology students at 2-year colleges. “They fall behind when they cannot take these courses earlier because the classes are often prerequisites for upper level classes and working in a lab.”
According to the National Student Clearinghouse, more than a quarter of the country’s undergraduates—4.2 million students—were enrolled in public community colleges in the spring of 2022. Psychology students who transfer from these schools sometimes feel like they won’t be able to compete with other graduate school applicants, and they may opt out of the process of pursuing advanced degrees, Joseph said.
In Florida, most community colleges do not offer research methods and statistics to psychology students because the courses are considered upper division classes, but policies vary by state. In California, these courses will transfer for credit at some 4-year schools but not others, said Jerry Rudmann, PhD, a psychology professor emeritus at Irvine Valley College in California and executive director of Psi Beta. Paying for the same class twice can also be a financial burden for transfer students who are covering their own expenses, he said. About 40% of community college psychology departments offer research methods and 50% offer statistics (American Psychologist, Vol. 71, No. 2, 2016opens in new window).
Psychologists like Rudmann are concerned that these transfer hurdles are disproportionately affecting students of color: In 2020, 21% of community college students were Latinx and 14% were Black, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. By comparison, 13% of psychology doctoral degrees were awarded to Latinx students and 8% to Black students (APA Center for Workforce Studies, Data Tool: Degrees in Psychology). Nearly a third of community college students are the first generation in their families to attend college.
“One of the discipline’s objectives is to increase equity in the educational and career pipeline, and this looks like a critical place to remove barriers,” Rudmann said. Offering research methods and statistics classes earlier in the psychology curriculum will not only ease the transfer process but also boost the field’s standing as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) discipline. In research methods courses, students learn how to review literature, design a study, submit it to the Institutional Review Board, collect and analyze data, and write about the findings. “Research experiences should be woven throughout the early coursework, starting with the introductory class,” said Rudmann. “Otherwise, students will leave lower division courses without a clear understanding that psychology is a scientific discipline.”
Psychology has fallen behind other stem fields when it comes to partnering with community colleges to diversify the field and recruit students, and it’s time to catch up, said Sue Orsillo, PhD, senior director of psychology education and training at APA. “Educators in engineering, computer science, and basic science thought about this issue earlier because there was an interest in increasing the number of graduates with these degrees, but psychology is a popular major and has not felt the squeeze,” she said. “But I’m optimistic that we can increase awareness about the barriers and learn from programs that are pioneering efforts to smooth the pathway for transfer students.”
Remarkable mentors in community college
California is one state where statistics and research methods courses are offered to psychology students at more than 100 community colleges, and in fact the California State University system requires transfer students to complete these courses before enrolling in undergraduate psychology programs. But the transition is not as straightforward within the University of California system, where some schools require transfer students to retake the courses.
Mako Tanaka, who transferred from Irvine Valley College to the University of California, Los Angeles, was frustrated when she had to retake research methods at UCLA, especially because the community college version of the class was highly rigorous. “The university class was very large, and it was nothing like the personalized training I received at community college,” she said. Rudmann, who taught the course at Irvine, encouraged Tanaka to present her research at the Western Psychological Association Convention and the Stanford Undergraduate Research Conference.
These opportunities helped Tanaka land a position in an educational psychology lab focused on diversity during her first semester at UCLA as a junior, and now she’s earning a doctoral degree at the school. For Tanaka, the research experience and support during community college significantly influenced her career path. “I’ve been in school a long time, and experience at community college was the best part of my education,” she said. “I’ve never felt more excited, empowered, engaged, and supported by mentors.”
Leading the way in the Southwest
Arizona is another state where community colleges are offering rigorous research methods and statistics classes to psychology students, and these courses transfer seamlessly to the state’s three public universities. Articulation task forces—including faculty from the universities and community colleges—for more than 40 majors gather each fall to ensure that the transfer process remains smooth in each discipline. For the past 4 years, Ladonna Lewis, PhD, a psychology professor at Glendale Community College in Arizona, has been the psychology representative for her community college district on the task force. During the meetings, university professors discuss any changes they are making in the curriculum, such as new writing or math requirements. This information allows the community colleges to modify their courses so the classes will transfer. “Everybody wants the same thing: student success,” Lewis said. “The people in these meetings are collaborative, and the university professors want our input to make sure the changes will not negatively impact transfer students.”
The amicable partnership between 2- and 4-year colleges benefited student Eric Bandin, who had the opportunity as a sophomore to study the effects of nurturing touch on stress responses in the animal research lab at Glendale Community College. “I enjoyed being exposed to things that put me outside of my comfort zone, and the professor running the lab became my mentor,” he said. When Bandin transferred to Arizona State University, his mentor’s connections there helped him secure a lab position. He recently graduated with his bachelor’s degree in psychology and is now a student in the university’s behavioral neuroscience doctoral program, where he’ll continue to study the effects of stress on behavior.
Facing barriers in Florida
In other areas, efforts to pave a path to undergraduate psychology have met opposition. Joseph has heard concerns from university faculty throughout the nation about who is qualified to teach research methods courses. “Many feel like there is a bias against community college faculty,” he said. “I was allowed to teach research methods as a graduate student in a PhD program, and now with over 15 years of additional experience, I am not permitted to teach the class at my community college.”
At Miami Dade College in Florida, several faculty members in the social sciences department were interested in creating discipline-specific research methods courses for associate’s degree students, but some in the department were concerned that there would not be enough students to fill such classes and that students might not be able to handle the courses. Supporters felt that students were missing an important chance to ask their own research questions and create hypotheses. “We believed that the class could help students to be critical thinkers and more savvy consumers of information,” said Kimberly Coffman, PhD, a psychology professor in social sciences at Miami Dade College who was one of the advocates for the new course.
After numerous meetings, the faculty decided to seek approval from college administrators for a social sciences research methods course that would be open to any student at the college. Offering the course to students of many disciplines was a way to increase enrollment. Although students are still required to take a discipline-specific research methods course when they transfer to a 4-year college, the course at Miami Dade is a “step in the right direction,” said Coffman.
Open to experimentation
As psychologists in academia attempt to reduce barriers for community college students, they may encounter people who are resistant to change. Pioneers in this effort will likely have more success if they pitch ideas as an experiment rather than a permanent decision, said psychology professor Lee Dixon, PhD, of the University of Dayton in Ohio. “Instead of assuming the changes are etched in stone, suggest trying out a partnership with a local community college,” he said. “You can always go back and make modifications.”
Historically, most students in Dixon’s classes have been recent high school graduates from middle- to upper-class families. “I realized that the way we had done things for decades was restricting a large subset of students,” he said. The university developed a partnership with nearby Sinclair Community College in multiple disciplines, and the schools worked together to ensure that classes would transfer for credit. Dixon started advising the Sinclair psychology majors as first-year students to help them prepare for the transition to the university. “These students have so much initiative,” he said. “They come to meetings with thoughtful questions and a list of courses they want to take.”
Stark State College educational psychology professor Bryan Gerber, PsyD, PhD, is also convinced that community college students deserve better access to research courses and mentors who can connect them to opportunities for further study. He developed an associate degree psychology program at the community college in North Canton, Ohio, that concluded with a challenging research methods course. Although students often express fear about taking the difficult class, Gerber reminds them that they are capable and ready. “It is such a rush to see people who never dreamed that they could conduct research doing poster presentations in front of the college,” Gerber said. “They end up being more prepared for research than many of their classmates at the university.”
