Reverse transferring, or moving from a four-year institution to a community college, has been depicted in recent research as one of the major forms of student mobility. Since reverse transferring is associated with extremely low rates of degree completion, it is critical to better understand the predictors of reverse transferring and what happens…

The Commission on Higher Education had a student intern from USC-Columbia initiate an analysis of data on the migration of undergraduate first-time transfers to compare trends, growth, and proportions of transfers to and from various sectors and institution types over a three-year period, from 2006-2008. Staff have refined the analysis and…

By probing the micro-level interactions and experiences shaping students' thoughts, behaviors, and decisions during college the authors hope to generate a better picture of how individuals enact the intersection of their own agency with their given social context. Such insights may enable a more accurate and meaningful interpretation of the…

Undergraduate transfer is a fact of life. At least 40 percent of students attend more than one institution on their path to a baccalaureate degree. Some students initially attend a two-year college, so transfer is to be expected if they seek a baccalaureate. Two-year college students are not the only ones who transfer. Data from the Beginning…

The vast majority of high school students plan to attend college--and believe that a bachelor's degree all but guarantees them a high-paying job. What many of them don't know is that those who are not well prepared are not likely to graduate. They also don't realize that plenty of career-focused certificates and associate's degrees lead to…

Among all the students who transfer from one institution to another during their academic careers, a distinct group of "reverse transfer" students has emerged over time. Reverse transfer occurs when students begin their college careers at 4-year institutions but eventually transfer into 2-year institutions. Using student unit record data…

This article describes how people with bachelor's and even advanced degrees are using two-year colleges as a form of graduate school. It defies the stereotype of community college as a place of last resort, and counters the norm of the first-time college students earning an associate degree and then transferring to a four-year institution. For the…

Reverse transfer has recently become a topic of interest. There are concerns that some university graduates are having a difficult time finding good jobs and are enrolling in community college programs to make themselves competitive in the job market. To assess the extent of reverse transfer, the Commission conducted an analysis combining…

In higher education, the two-year community college serves many roles. Probably the most well-known roles include serving underrepresented populations--those students who are the first in their families to attend college, those whose families don't have the financial means to send their children to a four-year college, and/or those whose academic…

Reducing socioeconomic differences in college transfer requires a better understanding of how and why parental education, occupational class, and family income are associated with changing colleges. Building on prior studies of traditional community college transfer we explore relationships between those factors and two types of transfer among…

Although many of the reverse transfer students were experiencing academic difficulty at the university, the large majority of them experienced academic success after transferring to a community college. Therefore, it may be concluded that transfer shock in regard to grade point average in the case of reverse transfer students does not exist.…

A growing number of students, called reverse transfer students, attend community colleges at the same time they are enrolled at a four-year institution or after they earn a bachelor's degree. This article explains the motivations and effects of reverse transfer on both students and institutions, and it discusses the potentially positive…

This report summarizes the trends in transfer students at Maryland public higher education institutions during the past 10 years, 1993-2002. Specifically, the figures include the number of students enrolled at a community college in the fall of each year who transferred to a public four-year institution by the fall of the following year; the…

Kuznik (1972) completed a study of community college populations and found that there is a rapidly growing number of students enrolled who were formerly enrolled in 4-year colleges and universities (reverse transfers). Impressively large percentages of the reverse transfers (38% males and 40% females) were continuing with their vocational plans,…

The idea of the community college as a second chance or "salvage" institution is discussed in this report. The study explores: (1) how many reverse transfer students (those who transfer from a 4-year to a 2-year institution) are enrolled in community colleges in the United States; (2) problems these students may encounter in transition; and (3)…