Dozens of students transfer to Elon University each year, but there’s no certainty they’ll finish their college career here.

Elon’s first-year student retention rate increased this academic year to 91 percent from 90 percent over the last four years. Slightly fewer students are transferring or dropping out within their first year. Elon’s registrar office is unable to pinpoint the number of students who’ve left Elon prior to completing their degree.

“This is a tough one to capture because we don’t know all the students that transfer out,” said Rodney Parks, university registrar. “Only within the last year did we start collecting electronic data of students who fill out the university withdrawal form that officially notifies us of their intent not to return to Elon.”

College students transfer for a number of reasons: changing majors, moving on from a community college to a four-year college or university, taking a gap semester, or because their school wasn’t a good fit.

The Elon registrar’s office is planning to explore new strategies in the coming months to collect data on students who leave Elon. By tracking these students and their reasons for leaving, Elon will be able to guide policy and resources for ensuring success for students in the future, Parks said.

Collin Campagne, a first-year Elon student who made the decision to transfer to the University of Vermont beginning in fall 2015, decided to apply for transfer within his first few weeks at Elon. 

“I knew what I was looking for and wanted in my college experience, and Elon wasn’t it,” he said.

Campagne applied to Elon last year through the gap semester program while deferring his regular admission to spring 2015. During that time, he also applied for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) course—a gap semester program that teaches wilderness and leadership skills in the Rocky Mountains.

A self-described nature-lover and born explorer, Campagne ended up choosing the NOLS program instead of Elon’s gap semester program and arrived at Elon Feb. 1 to begin his spring semester. Soon after the novelty of starting college wore off, he found himself struggling to find his place on campus, he said.

“I love my classes and professors, but I found myself drifting further away from the students,” Campagne said. “I am not preppy. I don’t own a single thing from Vineyard Vines. I despise Greek Life. I don’t drink, and I don’t do drugs.”

Eventually, though, Campagne began to make friends through Elon Outdoors and the Sierra Club, groups on campus dedicated to the advancement of outdoor ethics, leadership skills and nature exploration. But Campagne noticed a common thread among his new group of friends that eventually facilitated his decision to transfer out of Elon.

“Something [that] seems to be very resonant with the members [of these groups] is the desire to leave Elon, the displeasure toward other Elon students and how there were not enough opportunities to get outdoors,” he said.

Campagne is happy with his decision to return to his home state of Vermont where the surrounding college town is more suited to his outdoor lifestyle.

“The outing club there is also huge, and the nonconformist, eccentric culture is one that I identify with more than the preppy, upper-middle class culture here,” he said.

Campagne said he’s grateful to the NOLS program for changing the way he sees the world and making it easier to realize that Elon wasn’t right for him.

Allyson Enos, another student who began at Elon in February, chose to study at a community college in the fall after being deferred to the spring 2015 semester. Enos was one of about 20 total spring admits, said Kevin Napp, associate director of admissions and director of transfer and special admissions.

Napp said Elon has a program in place in which incoming and current transfer students are paired with spring admits to ease the transition.

“The mentors reach out via email a few weeks before classes begin to answer any questions, and we encourage them all to meet their mentee in person,” said Napp. “We try to facilitate a meeting with a meal and activity. Last spring, we did a dinner and basketball game.”

Enos discovered soon after arriving, though, like Campagne, that despite Elon’s efforts to assimilate transfer students, Elon wasn’t what she’d expected. 

“It’s a very small school, and there is too much focus on Greek Life for my liking,” Enos said.