Take Advantage of Dragon Next at Tiffin University

summary

In this episode of Transfer Take 5, Melissa Swafford, Director of the Tri-C Transfer Centers, and Kelly Petrosino, DragonNext Program Manager at Tiffin University, discuss the Dragon Next program at Tiffin University, which facilitates the transfer of students from community colleges like Tri-C. They cover eligibility requirements, the application process, and the benefits of the program, including a campus tour and various degree offerings. The conversation also highlights affordability through scholarships and funding opportunities, making higher education more accessible for students.

takeaways

• Dragon Next is a partnership between Tri-C and Tiffin University.
• Students can transfer their entire associate's degree to Tiffin.
• Eligibility requires a completed associate's degree and a GPA of 2.0.
• The program offers both online and on-campus options.
• Students can participate in a campus tour to learn more.
• Tiffin University has 59 bachelor's programs, 13 of which are online.
• Dually enrolled students can take master's classes at the undergraduate rate.
• Scholarships and funding opportunities are available for students.
• The program caters to both traditional and working students.
• Affordability is enhanced through various discounts and transfer credits.

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:06)
Welcome to Transfer Take 5. Today we will explore five aspects of transfer to Tiffin University. I'm Melissa Swafford, Director of the Tri-C Transfer Centers. Today I'm joined by Kelly Petrosino, the Dragon Next Program Manager at Tiffin University. Thanks for joining me today.

Speaker 1 (00:23)
Hi Melissa, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:26)
Well, why don't we get started by just if you can tell us what is Dragon Next

Speaker 1 (00:30)
Okay, so Dragon Next is a partnership between a two-year school like Tri-C that it's focusing on the student that is looking to get their associate's degree completed in any program that they're looking to go into. So with the student's completed associate's degree, they can transfer their entire associate's degree to Tiffin University, either all online or on main campus at a discounted rate.

So let's say they take a class at Tri-C like business, business management, and they decide to come to Tiffin University business management as well to get their bachelor's degree. They can transfer that entire associate's degree. That means everything is accounted for. All open electives, all gen eds, everything transfers. We can promise you that. then if they go all online, it is $150 off per credit hour.

If they come to Tiffin main campus, it is a $16,000 merit scholarship, their junior year and their senior year. I do want to mention that it is easier to transfer the entire transcript if they're going to go all online, just because we can match those curriculums perfectly. But for like main campus, there may be a few classes that they may have to add or take away or

complete before they finish their associate's degree or finish their bachelor's degree, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (02:03)
That's awesome. And so how does a student qualify to participate in the program?

Speaker 1 (02:11)
OK, so there's only two requirements. The two requirements are a completed associate's degree at Tri-C and a GPA of 2.0, which is obviously very attainable. those are the only two requirements. And I talk to students, like when I come and do the transfer fairs with Tri-C, I talk to students that are in their first semester, are in their, know, ending up their last semester at Tri-C, and they can complete the Dragon Next application.

And that just pretty much lets me know, lets you guys know that they're interested in transferring to Tiffin afterwards. We can all kind of work together to make sure all their ducks turn a row, to make sure all their classes are completed for their associate's degree. Then I get their transcripts. I do all the requesting of that. All of that gets transferred seamlessly to Tiffin University. And then they either come all online or to main campus.

Speaker 2 (03:03)
That sounds great for our students, the kind of working together, seamless transfer with the transcripts. that's great. So if a student's interested in learning more about Dragon Next I know you guys have a special program that helps them learn about more, come to campus. I think it's a bus tour Can you tell us more about that?

Speaker 1 (03:21)
Yeah, we have, this will be our third year that we're doing the bus tour. And we call it the bus tour because the first year we had the schools provide transportation. they were all, each school had their students come on a bus. So we call it the bus tour. It's really now like a bus tour slash open house. There's only one college that's providing transportation to Tiffin University. But it is like a one-stop shop where the student can come to campus,

And then we give all the campus, all the folks that are there, including guests, if they have a parent or another friend, we do a campus wide tour of every dorms. do the Heminger Center, which is like where all the sports practices is located. We do a go to the wrestling building, the e-sports building, all of the whole campus.

And then after that, we feed everybody lunch. And then there is a question and answer session after lunch. And at this question and answer session, we have financial aid there. We have housing there. We have someone to work on map out curriculum sheets for the students. We have meal plans, folks there, the whole nine yards. So the student can kind of really come in and talk to whoever they need to. Now let's say,

One of the students that's coming from Tri-C plays, do you guys have basketball?

Speaker 2 (04:52)
Be

sure to, women's and men's basketball.

Speaker 1 (04:54)
All right, so let's say they play on the basketball team there and they're interested in potentially playing for Tiffin. Then we can, they'll mark on the bus tour that they'd like to, on the application, it's not an application, it's more like a signup. They will mark on there that they would like to speak to a coach. And then once they've, once we've had the question answer session about the online programs, about the main campus programs, then those coaches will come in or those deans of those schools.

we'll come in and have conversations directly with those students about whatever their interest is. We could do the music programs, the theatrical programs, all of those things. So yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:35)
It's a really great program there.

Speaker 1 (05:38)
It

really is. I'm excited about it. And it's April 2nd this year.

Speaker 2 (05:42)
And it's usually in April every year, right?

Speaker 1 (05:44)
Yes, because we wait till the weather breaks a little bit so we can walk everyone around campus. That's awesome. We've been lucky so far.

Speaker 2 (05:52)
So I know you'd mentioned both Tiffin having online programs as well as campus based at main campus. Can you tell us which one students tend to pursue on campus and which ones you see a lot of students online from community colleges?

Speaker 1 (06:09)
Well, what's great is that we have 59 different bachelor's programs. And out of the 59 bachelor programs, 13 of those are online. now, like from TRI-C, there may be some criminal justice students that would, you know, typically, I see this a lot, like criminal justice students, for example, will get their associate's degree, get a job right away, and then

come to school part-time or come to school full-time. They want to get that start working. They want to start getting that paycheck. And I see that in the business world as well. It's just sometimes easier to, once you've finished your associates degree, to go straight into your bachelor's degree to get that cranked out and then get your job after that. so it's really just depends on what student I'm talking to, whether or not they want to do online or on main campus. So with that many options all online.

it makes it easier for the student to see what we offer online and whether or not they want to come to campus and or just do it all online. And we also have 25 different master's programs, so either all online or main campus as well. So that's another draw.

Speaker 2 (07:25)
for sure. Yeah, I think one of the things that makes Dragon Next unique is that we, you know, it caters to both the traditional student who wants to move onto campus and take classes in person on a college campus, as well as, like you said, the working adult who has started in the workforce but still wants to pursue a bachelor's degree. And Dragon Next provides an option for both of them. So that is really helpful to our students.

Speaker 1 (07:53)
That

student can go part-time, full-time, whatever works best for them, we make it work for them.

Speaker 2 (08:00)
So you mentioned the master's degree programs. Some of our students, that's kind of their ultimate goal is to get a master's degree. Can you tell me how Tiffin is making that affordable and achievable to students through their bachelor's programs?

Speaker 1 (08:14)
Sure. We have, like I mentioned, 25 different master's programs, either online or main campus. When you are working on your bachelor's degree, around the end of your junior year or your senior year, you can do what we call dully enrollment for the master's program. So you can actually take up to four classes at the undergrad rate. And this class will count towards both the main campus or both.

your bachelor's degree and your master's degree at the undergrad rate. So that saves a ton of money and that's called being duly enrolled into the master's program. And then after you finish your bachelor's degree with us, you get the alumni discount, which is $250 off per credit hour for that student to finish their master's degrees.

Speaker 2 (09:02)
That's a significant discount. that really would help toward students get moving and completing that master's degree. Talking about funding and scholarships, I know with Dragon X there are those discounts and scholarships that come along, but are there other scholarships or funding opportunities for students?

Speaker 1 (09:22)
Yes, it's just like any typical transfer student coming in, they can bring whatever they've earned as far as, you know, savings like a Rotary Club, you know, gift that they've gotten, they've earned, they can bring that as well. We just can't stack typically, like that's most colleges can't stack a bunch of discounts on top of each other. But we do have

if someone is going to be, for example, if they're a play esports, if they're on the esports team, and then they come to Tiffin, because the our esports team is not part of the GMAC or GLEMAC. I'm not sure how to say that, right. But they there could be additional funds put on top of that for them to come and play. And I think that there are some coaches that are able to do that, depending on if it's a club sport or if it's a, you know,

the D2 like football or basketball and that sort of thing. So there are some additional funds that can be put on that. And I do also know that MNR in our music department, like if a student comes in and is a business student, but they like to sing and they want to be in the choir, if they're in the choir, there could be additional funds added to their, to their discount to help them out with that as well. So and like, or if they help with the lighting at a

at a play, you know, there's, I think there's different ways that they can add some stuff to that too. with Tiffin University being a private college, it gives us some flexibility and able to help out that student in any way we can. So.

Speaker 2 (11:05)
Right. It sounds like with the Dragon Next, with the scholarships, the discounts, and then really taking as much of the Tri-C degree and credit, that that helps really with affordability.

Speaker 1 (11:19)
Yeah.

With the time too, if the student is able to finish 60, 61 hours at Tri-C, they only have to do, and let's say they've done additional hours at Tri-C, a lot of those will transfer all, when you're doing an online program, all of those will transfer too. So they may only have to take, instead of taking 20 classes, they may only have to take 18 or 17 classes because some of those other items

transferred in as well too, so that makes it really affordable too.

Speaker 2 (11:52)
Great. Kelly, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with us for our Tri-C students with Transfer Take 5.