Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities

In this sobering new study from Princeton University Press, William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, Michael S. McPherson examine why less than 60% of the students entering four-year colleges in America today are graduating.

Chapter 7 deals with Transfer Students and the Path from Two-Year to Four-Year Colleges.  The authors note the significant cost savings associated with attending a community college near a student's home, but also say:  "However, starting at a two-year college with hope of later transferring to a four-year college and earning a bachelor's degree can be risky."  They go on to cite research that estimates, "...beginning at a two-year college decreased bachelor's degree attainment rates by approximately 30 percentage points." (page 134)

Chapter 12, Looking Ahead, stresses five principal challenges:

• Overall educational attainment in the U.S. today is too low and stagnant
• U.S. educational system harbors huge disparities in outcomes-especially graduation rates-related to race/ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status
• Need to improve graduation rates, especially for males, from under-represented minorities and lower socio-economic groups
• Time-to-degree matters as well as graduation rates
• Public universities have to be the principal engines of progress to address these challenges (pages 223-225)

To read the full discussion, borrow a copy of Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities from the Bankier Library circulating collection with your ID/library card.

http://library.brookdalecc.edu/record=b1121407~S0