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Community college students who transfer to 4-year institutions for engineering degrees are known to face significant adversity. Some common challenges they face include having minimal financial resources, a lack of engineering-oriented mentorship, and prolonged time to degree. Engineering transfer students are naturally diverse, ranging in age, experience, and motivation. Some have carved paths that include, for example, military service, starting a family of their own, or switching their career aims. The nuanced nature of the transfer student experience challenges higher education professionals to identify innovative ways for transfer students to meet their individualized goals. The engineering transfer students aim to transition from a previous institution to a 4-year baccalaureate institution, obtain an engineering undergraduate or graduate degree, and, finally, transition into an engineering-oriented career. These are major transitions. Schlossberg has identified factors that influence an individual’s ability to cope with their experienced transitions, namely, situation, self, support, and strategies. Through this lens, the transfer experiences and transfer shocks undergone by these ambitious students may be better understood and improved. A partnership between a 4-year institution, the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and two community colleges, Imperial Valley College (IVC) and Southwestern College (SWC), has been formed to better understand and support transfer engineering students as they make major transitions in, through, and out of their respective institutions. Through this partnership, a supportive program called EMPOWER has been devised to assemble cohorts of Pell-grant-eligible engineering transfer students so that their diverse and timely needs can be addressed. Scholarships and high-impact practices have been offered to these students. Program activities include cross-campus visits, faculty, and alumni mentorship, financially supported research opportunities, and cohort-supporting social opportunities. Through focus groups and survey questionnaires, the transition experience for these students is further investigated. In this paper, an outline is provided detailing the common challenges faced by engineering transfer students as they transition toward their careers, along with high-impact practices to support them.