I came across a disturbing article that referred to a that found that 1 in 7 transfer students lose nearly all of their course credits when they switch from a community college to a four-year university. Some universities are accepting only 10 percent of college credits earned and this contributes to the statistics that we have all read about that say that transfer students are much less likely to earn a bachelor's degree. The report was written by David B. Monaghan and Paul Attewell of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The good news is that students who were able to transfer nearly all of their credits were two and a half times more likely to complete a bachelor's degree than students who transferred less than half of their credits. The article also said out that community college transfer students are just as likely to earn a bachelor's degree as equivalent students who start at the four-year school. Monaghan and Attewell reported that fifty-eight percent of community college students were able to transfer ninety percent or more of their credits, twenty-eight percent of students lost between ten and eighty-nine percent of their community college credits, and the most unsettling statistic is that fourteen percent of students lost more than ninety percent of their community college coursework. On a brighter note the article reports that some states are attempting to develop guaranteed pathways from their community colleges to their public four-year schools. Massachusetts and Virginia already offer guaranteed admission and credit transfers for students who pass courses and maintain minimum grade-point averages. Overall there is much that needs to be addressed to keep the community college transfer mission vital. What do you think?
http://money.msn.com/debt-management/article.aspx?post=58e0c226-9e9c-4c79-b2ba-277c5de26e37...