METS: a collaboration to assist students transitioning into engineering from the community colleges to the university

The METS project - Maricopa engineering transition scholars - is a two-year pilot collaboration between Arizona State University (ASU) and Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) funded by the National Science Foundation. The project is designed to 1) recruit, 2) retain and 3) graduate engineering transfer students. The project targets MCCCD women and underrepresented minority students. The research-grounded project activities were designed based on analysis of best practices piloted over many years at both MCCCD and ASU. Three of the METS activities include: Be an Engineer event designed to interest students in engineering by allowing them to participate in "hands-on" engineering activities at local community colleges, pizza with a professor to allow students to interact with an ASU professor, and METS workshops on survival strategies for students who have transferred from a community college to the ASU Fulton School of Engineering. The paper discusses what we have learned to date about the METS activities which are the most effective to assist community college students who transition into engineering. METS activities also assist community college students transferring from a two-year community college to a 4-year engineering program at ASU. In addition, the paper provides an analysis of community college students seeking engineering degrees by demographics, motivation, and needs and provides trends in enrollment, retention, and graduation.