Moving from a two-year associate’s degree to a four-year bachelor’s degree is a huge transition and can be very challenging for students. Many struggle with figuring out how to keep all their credits intact. Luckily, the University of Maine is offering a program that helps students with this transition called the “Black Bear Advantage” program.

The Black Bear Advantage program is a new co-enrollment program between the University of Maine at Orono (UMO), the University of Maine in Machias (UMM), and the Maine Community College System started in April of 2024. This new advantage program does not however include University of Southern Maine (USM), despite USM being a part of the Maine college system. 

The community colleges that the program extends to for UMO include Central Maine Community College (CMCC), Eastern Maine, Kennebec Valley, and Southern Maine Community College (SMCC). UMaine Machias now is offering co-enrollment to Washington County Community College, while UMO and York County Community College are working to develop academic programs to be part of the Black Bear Advantage.

The goal of the program is to make it easier for community college students to transition from one college to another, but there are flaws to the program. Students will have to take one University of Maine class per semester (online or in person) while at community college. If you’re a student that struggles with your courses now, this would be a challenge. You will have to pay for these courses yourself, and if you decide to pull out of the program that money will be lost. The truth is that it might not be worth it to students that are unsure about going to school at UMO or UMM.

The program does extend numerous benefits. It offers a guaranteed transfer, meaning that students that complete an associate’s degree at any one of Maine’s community colleges are guaranteed transfer to either the Orono or Machias campus. In addition, the program also offers scholarships of $2,000, waived fees, priority registration, and advising access. It will also help students minimize the loss of community college credits when they transfer.

Riley Bolton, current SMCC student, is eager to take advantage of the opportunity. “I’m really interested in the program. There are lots of benefits, but the two that stick out the most are the scholarship and how much easier it makes this transition” explains Bolton, who is hoping to attend the University of Maine in Orono next fall. Not many students have heard about this new program. “My mom brought it up to me, but it’s so new that I haven’t heard about it from anyone else” explained Riley. 

The Beacon spoke with Karyn Soltis-Habeck, associate Director of Transfer, Non-Traditional and Veteran Admissions at Umaine, to share her opinions about the program. Habeck listed off the many benefits of the program, “Co-enrollment, UMaine ID card, transfer articulation agreement with UMaine, UMaine comes to you (at least twice each year, advisors from UMaine will visit MCCS campuses to establish a supportive relationship and get you necessary information), advising and transfer support, scholarship, accelerated transfer process, and priority registration at UMaine.” When asked how many students are currently enrolled, she explained “The program was just launched this fall, so we do not have that data yet.” Haeback would absolutely recommend this program to students. But why isn’t USM involved? “This program was designed at UMaine, Orono specifically for students wanting to eventually transfer to UMaine. This was not created by the UMaine System,” said Habeck.

The Black Bear program has many advantages to students enrolled in a Maine community college looking to further their studies at a University of Maine location, but it also has disadvantages. The program might not be worth it to some. Hopefully, this program will expand to more Maine community colleges. It’s a very new program, but it’s important that community college students hear about it. If you are looking for more information about the program, you can find it at https://go.umaine.edu/transfer-to-umaine/black-bear-advantage/