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How and Why Does Two-Year College Entry Influence Baccalaureate Aspirants’ Academic and Labor Market Outcomes?

By Jeffrey Fletcher, Di Xu & Shanna Smith Jaggars
Using detailed administrative data from Virginia, this CAPSEE working paper examines how and why the community college pathway to a baccalaureate influences students’ degree attainment and short-term labor market performance. The authors find that the community college pathway sharply reduces the likelihood of earning a bachelor’s degree but does not have a significant impact on students’ short-term labor market performance. The paper examines various mechanisms that may stand in the way of students’ baccalaureate completion: the impacts of two-year attendance on early academic progress, the logistical challenges inherent in selecting and enrolling in a four-year transfer destination, the loss of credits at the point of transfer, and post-transfer academic “shock.” Results suggest that the primary culprit is that many otherwise successful community college students never enter a four-year transfer destination. Among students who do transfer, their probability of baccalaureate attainment and their short-term labor market performance are comparable to those of native four-year students. After taking into account the lower costs of community college attendance, a cost-benefit analysis suggests that two-year entrants fare as well as or better than four-year entrants, at least in the short run (eight years after college entry). A version of this paper authored by Di Xu, Shanna Smith Jaggars, Jeffrey Fletcher, and John Fink and titled “Are Community College Transfer Students ‘A Good Bet’ for 4-Year Admissions? Comparing Academic and Labor-Market Outcomes Between Transfer and Native 4-Year College Students” appears in The Journal of Higher Education, vol. 89.
  • Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE)

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Download CAPSEE working paper
April 2016
View article (subscription may be required)
January 2018

Related Publications

February 2018

Are Community College Transfer Students “A Good Bet” for 4-Year Admissions? Comparing Academic and Labor-Market Outcomes Between Transfer and Native 4-Year College Students

January 2015

What We Know About Transfer

Additional Resources

For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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