JULY/AUGUST 2003 X VOL 44 NO 4 489 Race and Gender Differences in the Transfer Student Experience Matthew R. Wawrzynski William E. Sedlacek The expectations, self-perceptions, past academic behaviors, and attitudes of transfer students were examined in this study. Participants were 2,492 incoming transfer students (53% female, 14% African Amer- ican, 14% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 6% Hispanic/Latino/a, and 65% White, and had a mean age of 21.8) at a mid- Atlantic doctoral extensive public university. During their university orientation, students completed the Transfer Student Survey (Wawrzynski, Kish, Balón, & Sedlacek, 1999). Multivariate statistical analysis revealed differences by race and gender for expectations, academic behaviors, and learning outcomes. The use of noncognitive variables was discussed in the context of the various findings and implications. Recent information on college enrollment trends indicated that higher education experienced a rapid growth of students in the last decade (United States Department of Education, 2001). Paralleling this rapid growth was the number of students who transferred from one institution to another (Beckenstein, 1992). Although numbers of transfer students increased over the past decade, research on transfer students has not kept pace with this growing trend. The research on transfer students has been devoted to comparing transfer students to their first-year student counterparts (Miville & Sedlacek, 1995) or to students who originated and continued enrollment at the Matthew R. Wawrzynski is Assistant Professor of Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education at Michigan State University. William E. Sedlacek is Professor of Education at University of Maryland. same institution (Keeley & House, 1993; Townsend, 1994), or grouped students into minority and nonminority transfer students (Keeley & House; Laanan, 1999). Addi- tionally, in their meta-analysis, Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) devoted a few pages to discussing transfer students, with the point that two-year colleges may not adequately prepare students to transfer to four-year institutions. Research on transfer students has often not taken full advantage of multiple levels of analyses. For example, researchers have been simplistic in their analyses, with many only providing demographic data and frequencies (Eimers & Mullen, 1997); had small sample sizes (Davies & Casey, 1999; Davies & Dickmann, 1998; Miville & Sedlacek, 1995), or have examined GPA and retention as a means of determining a successful transition (Cejda, 1997; Cejda, Kaylon, & Rewey, 1998; Laanan, 1999). Although the literature on transfer students provided a general basis for better under- standing these students, transfer students are often defined as a group by the one thing they share—a transition experience from one school to another—even if they have little else in common with their transfer peers. When researchers and practitioners view transfer students with a singular perspective, the consequent stereotyping and myths influence the way we understand and serve this growing student population. Transfer students are often labeled as not wanting to