Recruiting Transfer Students: Essential Questions and Proven Strategies

Jun 11, 2025 Marketing Trends, Undergraduate Enrollment

Colleges and universities can no longer afford to treat transfer students as an afterthought. This critical student population is essential to institutional health, but attracting and enrolling them requires a thoughtful, proactive strategy.

If your current approach feels reactive or disconnected, now is the time to ask yourself three critical questions:

1. Do You Have a Strategic Plan for Transfer Students?

Many institutions recognize the importance of transfers but don’t know how to engage them effectively. Transfer enrollment has historically been organic, which makes the funnel unpredictable and difficult to forecast. Too often, the strategy amounts to this: Take last year’s number and aim a little higher.

Yes, it’s harder to be intentional when the pool feels spontaneous. There aren’t as many levers to pull as there are with first-year recruitment. Transfer fairs can be hit or miss. The search market is thinner. But these are not excuses for inaction.

If you’ve never conducted a true audit of your past transfer initiatives — asking What worked? What didn’t? What’s missing? — now is the time. Transfer students require more than reactive recruitment. They deserve a dedicated plan.

2. Are You Moving Fast Enough?

Transfer students are not known for their patience. Many are navigating tight timelines, financial pressures and uncertainty about credit articulation. If they don’t get quick answers, they move on.

Unfortunately, the transfer process often crosses multiple departments: admissions, registrar, academic advising, financial aid, athletics and beyond. Without strong internal communication and ownership, your process slows down and your prospects slip away.

Some solutions:

• Designate a transfer specialist in your registrar’s office to evaluate transcripts quickly and clearly.

• Train financial aid counselors to understand the unique needs of transfers.

• Create interdepartmental procedures that allow for same-day or next-day follow-up.

Remember: Transfer students often ask their key questions before applying. If they don’t feel confident they’ll get credit or funding, they won’t even start your application.

3. Are You Missing Easy Wins?

Too many institutions leave actionable insights — and viable leads — on the table.

Reengage past prospects. Through the National Student Clearinghouse, you can identify “non-matriculants” who applied or were admitted in previous years but enrolled elsewhere. Many of these students are now enrolled at local community colleges and could still be viable transfers.

Maximize your articulation agreements. Don’t just sign them — activate them. Build early relationships with community college students. Help them map out a clear, personalized plan to transfer. Get face time with advisors and students. Make your brand visible on their campus.

Leverage your website. Transfer students don’t want to dig. Use marketing automation to personalize the experience, answer questions in real time, and capture contact information at the moment of intent.

Building an Effective Transfer Strategy in 2025

To compete in today’s transfer market, you need the right mix of people, processes and platforms. Here are a few proven tactics:

Use Marketing Automation

With a robust marketing automation platform, you can:

• Turn anonymous website visitors into known transfer prospects.

• Trigger real-time, personalized messaging based on page behavior.

• Promote high-yield events like transcript evaluations and Instant Decision Days.

• Deploy PID (Progressive Identification) forms to capture inquiries on transfer-specific pages.

(Across Capture Higher Ed clients, transfers identified through a PID form are 2.4x more likely to apply and 4x more likely to deposit than those who aren’t.)

Expand Digital Advertising

Email is not enough. Gen Z transfer students spend over four hours a day on their mobile devices. Targeted digital advertising — especially geo-targeted campaigns aimed at feeder institutions — is essential to staying top of mind.

Tap Into Underused Lead Sources

• Revisit your funnel from the past 2–3 years. Anyone who showed interest but didn’t enroll could be a viable transfer today.

• Utilize National Student Clearinghouse data to identify applicants who landed elsewhere but are now primed for a change.

• Explore Phi Theta Kappa’s Connect platform to access pre-qualified, transfer-ready students.

• Turn social media into a prospecting tool through embedded PID forms on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The Bottom Line

Transfer students represent both a challenge and an opportunity. They are older, more pragmatic, more impatient — and often more committed. To recruit them effectively in 2025, you need speed, strategy and systems that are built with their journey in mind.

Ask the right questions. Act on the answers. Don’t leave easy wins on the table. And if you need help developing and implementing your transfer strategy, contact Capture today. We have the platform, software and expert services that can take your recruitment to the next level.

By Capture Higher Ed’s Team of Enrollment Experts