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
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9016730 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Di Xu (0000-0001-5464-9858, University of California, Irvine, corresponding author), Shanna Smith Jaggars (0000-0001-7484-9689, Office of Distance Education and eLearning, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA), Jeffrey Fletcher (0000-0002-6846-9732, Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA), John Fink (0000-0002-4101-7496, Columbia University), John E Fink (Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 478-502 |
| Publication date | 2018-02-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Higher Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-1546 • E-ISSN: 1538-4640 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00221546.2018.1434280 |
| OpenAlex | W2789509069 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 28 |
| References cited | 36 |
Using detailed administrative data from Virginia, this paper examines whether community college “vertical transfer” students who resemble “native four-year” students in their accumulated college-level credits and performance at their point of entry into the four-year sector perform equally well in terms of both academic and labor market outcomes. We compare matching strategies typically used in existing literature to one where we match vertical transfer and native four-year students based on prior credits earned, accumulative GPA, and the destination four-year institution, and find substantial differences in estimates based on different matching strategies. We also examine potential mechanisms underlying vertical transfer students’ relative performance at the four-year institution and in the labor market. The results show that vertical transfer students’ probability of baccalaureate attainment is comparable to that of similar native students attending the same four-year institution. However, when considering their earnings eight years after initial college enrollment, vertical transfer students experience a significant and nontrivial earnings penalty. Subsequent analyses examining possible mechanisms suggest the earning decrement is partly due to a delayed entry into the labor market as a result of credit loss at the point of transfer
Community college · Demographic economics · Economics · Labour economics · Mathematics education · Medical education · Political science · Sociology · Transfer (computing · Computer Science · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Higher Education Research Studies · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Medicine · Psychology
Educational Pathway, Program Type, Socioeconomic Status, and Graduates' Labor Market Attainment for Sustainable Development
Opportunity for all? The differential impacts of North Carolina’s revised comprehensive articulation agreement by race/ethnicity
Community college penalty in employment outcomes
Stratified Trajectories
Optimizing Intent to Transfer
Failing at Remediation? College Remedial Coursetaking, Failure and Long-Term Student Outcomes
Could Shifting the Margin Between Community College and University Enrollment Expand and Diversify University Degree Production in STEM Fields
Heading in the Right Direction? Examining the Relationship of Transfer Patterns and Income Status on College Student Outcomes
Building Transfer Student Interest in Computer Science PhDs
Early Effects of North Carolina’s Comprehensive Articulation Agreement on Credit Accumulation Among Community College Transfer Students
Year or Not 2-Year? The Impact of Starting at Community College on Bachelor’s Degree Attainment
Reimagining Social Work Education
Getting to the Core of Credit Transfer
Public University Degree Audits
Comparison of workload and academic performances of transfer and native students in an Asian educational context
The role of individual institutions in creating effective and efficient transfer pathways from community college to bachelor’s degree
Transitioning from secondary vocational school to university
Factors predicting vertical transfer students’ GPA and degree attainment in an Asian educational context
How Political and Ecological Contexts Shape Community College Transfer
A Qualitative Exploration on the Challenges of Transfer Students in an Asian Educational Context
Factors Affecting Direct and Transfer Entrants’ Active Coping and Satisfaction with the University
Who borrows, and how much? Student borrowing across post-secondary pathways in Ontario, Canada
A Domains of Power Analysis of the Narratives of Women of Color on Community College STEM Education Pathways
Disability and the stratification of post‐secondary pathways
The Price of Pathways
The Role of Community College Attendance in Shaping Baccalaureate Recipients’ Access to Graduate and Professional Education
The Vertical Transfer Penalty among Bachelor’s Degree Graduates
The Costs of Time
Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research
Redesigning America's Community Colleges
Crossing the Finish Line
The national survey of student engagement
The Community College Route to the Bachelor’s Degree
Do Community Colleges Provide a Viable Pathway to a Baccalaureate Degree?
A critical appraisal of propensity‐score matching in the medical literature between 1996 and 2003
Dropout from Higher Education
Propensity Score-Matching Methods for Nonexperimental Causal Studies
Persistence to the Baccalaureate Degree for Students Who Transfer from Community College
Comparing the Educational Attainment of Community College Transfer Students and Four-Year College Rising Juniors Using Propensity Score Matching Methods
| Unique citing works | 28 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 28 |