Background/Context: Community colleges are positioned as a cost-effective way for students to complete the first two years of a bachelor's degree, yet informational barriers to the transfer process are well documented. To transfer, students must overcome informational constraints, navigate bureaucratic hurdles, and resolve conflicting requirements from both their community college and prospective transfer institution. Research has examined how students struggle to find information about transfer policies, credit portability between different institutions, and whether credits count towards their program of study (Bensimon and Dowd 2009; Schudde, Jabbar, and Hartman 2021; Schudde, Bradley, and Absher 2018; Jabbar et al. 2021; Person, Rosenbaum, and Deil-Amen 2006). Informational barriers may have important repercussions, including failure to transfer, credit loss, and increased time to a baccalaureate. However, little research has examined how students access information in the transfer process and whether information use is pattered by students' demographic characteristics. Purpose/Objective/Research Question: To examine transfer information use, the research team analyzed data gathered through an original survey and administrative data from college students in the San Francisco Bay Area who had recently transferred or were in the midst of making transfer decisions. Specifically, the analysis examined the following descriptive research questions: (1) What types and formats of information do transfer students use to access information and make decisions about the transfer process? (2) What are students' preferences for support through the transfer process? (3) What relationships do students leverage in the transfer process? (4) How do these patterns differ between prospective students and those who have successfully transferred or by student demographics (i.e., race, gender, or age)? (5) Are historically underserved student groups more or less likely to use official or reliable information sources (i.e., transfer counselors) compared to less reliable sources (i.e., other students)? Setting and Subjects: The research team developed and administered surveys to two populations to examine information use in the transfer process. The recent transfer study survey was distributed to the universe of recent transfer students at two universities in the California Bay Area (n=7,360). The prospective transfer survey was distributed to the universe of transfer-eligible students within a community college district in the Bay Area (n=978) who were enrolled during the fall 2023. The study also utilizes administrative data from all five institutions. The analytic sample includes five longitudinal cohorts of students (n=24,249) enrolled at two Bay Area universities from 2018/19-2022/23, and 973 community college transfer students from one community college district who were eligible to transfer in fall 2023. Research Design: The research team used student-level administrative data from two universities and a community college district to empirically describe transfer student enrollment, demographics, and academic outcomes. Researchers used surveys of recent and prospective transfer students to catalogue which sources of transfer information students utilized, their perceived usefulness, the challenges they encountered in the transfer process, and factors that affected their transfer decision. Data Collection and Analysis: The research team developed and administered an online survey to capture the experiences of recent transfer students and collected data on students who transferred from local community colleges to two universities in the Bay Area between fall 2018 and spring 2023. These data included demographics (race/ethnicity, sex, age, socioeconomic status (SES) via Pell Grant eligibility, and first-generation student status); pre-transfer academic background (last institution attended, transferable units earned, and transfer GPA); enrollment (application term, first enrollment term, initial and current or final major [name, CIP code, and college]); and academic achievement and completion at their destination college (graduation date, degree earned [type, major name, and CIP code], GPA, and units attempted and earned). Findings/Results: We find that community college students access information from a range of sources, often blending and braiding information from advisors and websites, two-year and four-year colleges, and material developed by postsecondary institutions with knowledge from friends and family. We examine variation in the use of transfer information between recent and prospective transfer students. Patterns of information use also vary by students' demographic characteristics including race, gender, and age. Students commonly struggle with information inconsistencies across sources and institutions but find personable interaction with advisors helps them successfully navigate the transfer process. As is well-documented in research about decision-making in college, students require guidance from institutional staff to interpret information and make optional decisions (Bettinger et al. 2009; Castleman, Schwartz, and Baum 2015; Deil-Amen and Rosenbaum 2003; Dynarski and Scott-Clayton 2006). Findings from the administrative data analysis reveal that transfer students from local community colleges are the largest and most consistent transfer student population, and that the transfer student population is a diverse and evolving student group: most students are young, Hispanic/Latino or Asian, and female. Enrollments are precipitously declining, but there is significant variation across groups: enrollment among older students has grown and historically disadvantaged students have had greater than average enrollment declines. There are substantive differences in enrollment and outcomes across groups which suggests students may need unique support strategies or tailored information about transfer, depending on the demographic group. Conclusions: Community college students are burdened by the need to invest time and energy to gather information about transfer pathways and policies. When colleges neglect to provide adequate or consistent information about transfer options and requirements, students must seek it out through their own means, and their strategies for doing so are often ineffective. Even the most successful students--who curate resources from family, friends, and various websites, determine credibility, and synthesize information to inform their transfer decisions--often gather incorrect information that leads them astray in their educational plans. To improve transfer outcomes, colleges can improve the accessibility and consistency of transfer information and combine information-based interventions with support from college staff. Findings from this descriptive study could be used to inform future studies about how differences in the quality, modality, or content of transfer materials affect transfer rates and post-transfer outcomes.