The interest and participation in dual credit programs and courses has grown over the past several decades, especially within Texas; however, there is a lack of research that shows how the participation in dual credit programs and courses has impacted leading and lagging student success metrics once they enroll at a post-secondary institution. The…

There is a multitude of studies that have examined graduation rates within the traditional 4- to 6-year time frame. What fails to be captured in these studies are students who are outside the 4- to 6-year time frame. In the present study, we sought to empirically explore a cohort of students who successfully completed their bachelor's degrees at a…

This study builds on the body of research on Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Latinx student outcomes, and uses Garcia et al.'s (2019) conceptual framework of servingness. Using multiple years of data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), we examined the extent to which HSIs serve Latinx students in terms of…

Many students who enroll in a public U.S. 4-y college will not graduate. The odds of completing a college degree are even lower for students who have been marginalized in higher education, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. Can undergraduate research increase a student's likelihood of graduating college and…

Given the increasing number of community college students aspiring to complete a bachelor's degree and the decrease in traditional college-bound high school graduates universities have started to focus their attention on the recruitment and retention of transfer students. The institution in this study is a large public research institution located…

Higher education institutions have prioritized supporting undecided students with their major and career decisions for decades. This study used a U.S. public research-focused university's large-scale institutional data set and undecided student's retention and graduation rate predictors to demonstrate how to couple student and institutional data…

With student loan debt reaching approximately $1.6 trillion, many are concerned that student loans may be the next financial bubble to burst. CARES Act funding and U.S. Department of Education actions led to historically low levels of delinquency in 2020-2021. However, there is concern that issues will balloon as soon as governmental action and…

This brief examines the impact of using a system based on multiple metrics that requires institutions to pass three out of four thresholds for student loan default, student loan repayment, program completion, and postcollege earnings. Currently, a very high loan default rate is the only student outcome that disqualifies institutions from the…

As the eleventh in the Completing College series, this report updates the six-year college completion rates nationally and by state, by tracking the enrollment and completion outcomes for the fall 2016 cohort of beginning college students through June 2022. The report also features national eight-year completion outcomes for the fall 2013 and fall…

In this article, I utilize a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effects of Tulsa Achieves--a prevalent and understudied type of tuition-free college program. In contrast to concerns regarding tuition-free community college suppressing bachelor's degree attainment, I find that Tulsa Achieves increased the likelihood of transferring to…

As the ninth in the "Completing College" series, the report presents the latest information on the six-year completion outcomes of the fall 2014 cohort of beginning college students, nationally and by state, and the eight-year completion outcomes of the fall 2012 cohort of beginning students, through June 2020. The national completion…

What do state policies say about how to fund postsecondary education? This 50-State Comparison answers this question by searching state statutes, state rules and regulations, enacted state budget bills, and state postsecondary education agency policies that address postsecondary education budgeting and funding. According to the content of the…

With student loan debt reaching approximately $1.5 trillion, many are concerned that student loans may be the next financial bubble to burst. They cite students with loans of more than $100,000 and ballooning loan default rates. They contend that borrowing for higher education may not be worth the financial risks. Some even argue that students…

This report provides a snapshot of certain aspects of transfer student success and costs using data from four transfer cohorts matriculating at four-year institutions between 2006-07 and 2009-10. These cohorts allowed for the tracking of students post-transfer for up to six years. Transfer efficiency can have a direct and significant effect on the…

With student loan debt reaching approximately $1.4 trillion, critics are concerned that student loans may be the next financial bubble to burst. They cite students with loans of more than $100,000 and ballooning loan default rates. They contend that borrowing for higher education may not be worth the financial risks, especially for students who…