Transfer students are an important part of any post-secondary institution And Hilbert College is no exception.

There are many reasons for students to transfer colleges. Whether it be a student wants to live closer to home, a student might transfer for athletic purposes, or a student might have gone to a two year program out of high school and it’s now time to move into a four year school to get a bachelor’s degree.

Growing the college is important for Hilbert College as it is not a big college to begin with as it roughly only has about 800 students attending it. Transfer students grow the school by providing a second chance at recruiting students and can lead to growing the number of people enrolled at the school.

Erika Schwegler, the associate director of admissions at Hilbert College, brings in roughly sixty transfer students per semester.

Schwegler refers to transfer students as educated consumers.

“They’ve tested out the waters and know what they want out of a school,” Schwegler said. “They have gone through it before sat another school and they understand what they want.”

Transfer students come to the school with a knowledge of what they want as they have been through it before at a previous intuition. This benefits the school because they have clear picture of how they want go about things at the next school.

“Transfer students know what they want out of life now, they want to make this last ride what they wanted out of college in the first place,” Schwegler said.

“Roughly sixty per session, although that changes depending on the year. I also might bring in more in the fall semester rather than the spring semester,” she added.

Sixty transfer students a semester is quite a number considering the small number of students the college has to begin with. If sixty are brought in each semester that would be that a large portion of the school are transfer students.

One of these transfer students is a Transfer from Erie community college named Zach Scharett.

“Basically because of the proximity to Erie (Community College),” Scharett said. “It made the most sense as I play baseball and I wanted to continue my athletic career at the college level.”

With the new field being built on campus the baseball team has been able to obtain a lot of transfer students who might have passed on Hilbert out of high school.

“The field and head coach was definitely a huge draw for me,” Scharett added.

Schwegler said transfer students do a lot for the college and it is important that the keep them coming in to grow the Hilbert Community.

“I think they (transfer students) are our best ambassadors and they are the best retention for the school,” she said.