The consensus view is that transferring from a two-year college to a four-year college--within one state--is smoother than transfers from one state to another. Since community and two-year college programs are often supported by government subsidies at the county or state level, and lawmakers strive to increase educational opportunities for students within their state, there have been many efforts by state legislatures and administrators in flagship universities to facilitate the switch-over from two-year to four-year colleges within each state. In addition, many state colleges standardize their requirements for incoming transfer students, which helps to expedite intrastate transfers. For example, the California State University system gives priority to community college students transferring to four-year colleges within California; one estimate was that 60% of students on its 23 different campuses were transfer students. The University of California has an arrangement to accept many students conditionally to one of its nine undergraduate campuses if students first complete two years of community college; the plan extended these so-called "provisional offers of admission" to 12,700 students in the year 2000. In 2010, there were reports that 33,700 students were trying to transfer into the University of California system, but that uncertain state funding issues were complicating matters. A report in 2012 suggested that "explosive growth in the number of applications" along with cuts in state funding had prevented the University of California, San Diego from continuing their Transfer Admission Guarantee program.
Generally, large state universities are well-suited to offer higher education to transfer applicants from within their state as well as elsewhere. The largest state university to enroll transfer students was Arizona State University, according to one report, which enrolled 5,388 transfer students in 2009. Many two-year community or county colleges have longstanding articulation agreements with the flagship universities within their states about accepting transfer applicants. Indiana has been successful in shunting students from its Ivy Tech community colleges to its four-year colleges and that successful transfers, including transfers of credits, has risen 438 percent during the past ten years. There are reports that states such as Virginia and Maryland have made efforts to build a "transfer pipeline" from community colleges to public universities to the extent that it was "changing the traditional path to a four-year degree." Virginia has a system in which students at any of its 23 community colleges who earn an Associates Degree have a "guaranteed transfer" to one of the state's highly ranked colleges and universities such as Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Maryland has an online database so that community college students can know the transfer value of each course. In tight economic times, the path of a relatively inexpensive two-year community college followed by a somewhat more expensive two years at a four-year public university, is often a more realistic choice for cash-strapped families. Frostburg State University has worked on agreements with community colleges to make the transfer between the two schools "smoother". Minnesota, as well, has outlined its policy of "transfer rights and responsibilities" to smooth the transition. The policy insists students have a right to "clear, accurate and current information" about transfer policies including deadline, requirements for degrees, and course equivalencies, while at the same time insisting that students have a duty to enroll in transfer workshops, speak with advisors, and plan out their path towards degrees. In New Jersey, there were reports of many residents transferring to in-state schools in "record numbers" in 2009, and that many transfer students were considered to be "prize catches" since they had developed a track record of educational achievement at other schools in neighboring states and around the country. New Jersey's 19 community colleges serve approximately 400,000 students, and 61% of them transfer to four-year schools.