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Cited by 40Higher Education Research StudiesEducational Outcomes and InfluencesEducation and Military Integration

Attrition and performance of community college transfers

Open access
Aulck, Lovenoor, West, Jevin·2017·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0174683PMC PMC5390974
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Abstract

Community colleges are an important part of the US higher education landscape, yet the aptitude and preparedness of student transfers to baccalaureate institutions is often called into question. Examining transcript records and demographic information of nearly 70,000 students across over 15 years of registrar records at a public university, this study performed a descriptive analysis of the persistence, performance, and academic migration patterns of community college transfers, transfers from four-year institutions, and freshmen entrants. We found little difference between community college transfers and freshmen entrants in terms of post-transfer grades and persistence. Transfers from four-year institutions had higher grades but also had higher attrition rates than their peers. This study also found no strong evidence of transfer shock on students' post-transfer grades. When examining the tendencies of students to shift fields of study during their educational pursuits, the academic migration patterns of transfer students were more concentrated than those of freshmen entrants.

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  • Transfer students from 2-year colleges tend to be more committed to a specific major and career path than first-year university students.

    “Despite these barriers, transfer students from 2-year colleges tend to be more committed to a specific major and career path than first-year university students (Aulck and West, 2017).”

    From A Meta-analysis of University STEM Summer Bridge Program Effectiveness (2021) · cites this paper as Aulck and West, 2017

    The Introduction and Discussion report that transfer students had more focused academic paths than freshmen entrants, and that 2-year transfers made the fewest shifts across fields of study. The Discussion suggests this may reflect more defined educational trajectories, but the paper does not establish that they are more committed to a specific career path. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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2 of the 38 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [16]De Los Santos AG, Wright I. Community college and university student transfers. The Educational Record. 1989; 70(3–4): 82– 84.
  2. [36]Aulck L, Velagapudi N, Blumenstock J, West J. Predicting Student Dropout in Higher Education. International Conference on Machine Learning’s Data for Good Workshop. 2016;.

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Authors
Aulck, L., & West, J.
Affiliations
University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Aulck, Lovenoor
ORCID
West, Jevin
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2017-04-13
Volume
12
Issue
4
Pages
e0174683
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0174683
PMC
PMC5390974
OpenAlex
W2606075818
Cited by
40
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1
FWCI
8.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Washington
  • Medical School, University of Michigan
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
  • Social Sciences › Education › Educational Outcomes and Influences
  • Social Sciences › Education › Education and Military Integration
Keywords
community college transfer, student attrition, academic persistence, transfer students, academic performance, transfer shock, academic migration, baccalaureate institutions, higher education
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Education, Nonprofessional, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Theoretical, Students, United States, Universities

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