Dive Brief:
- Most students who transfer to a four-year college — 56% — start at a public two-year college, according to a new U.S. Department of Education study.
- About one-third, or 35%, of the first-time undergraduate students included in the study transferred at least once in the six years starting with the 2003-2004 school year.
- The vast majority of college transfers — nearly 90% — were between colleges that were regionally accredited, not nationally accredited, and accreditation status was unrelated to the number of credits transferred.
Dive Insight:
The bottom line from the study: Students who transfer from two-year to four-year institutions are typically successful in having their credits transferred. The study was conducted by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, using six years’ worth of transcript data gathered from nearly 17,000 students who started college in the 2003-2004 school year. The higher a student’s grades prior to transfer, the greater the number of credits accepted by the destination school. More credits were transferred when the destination college was public than when it was private.