Do students benefit from going backward?: the academic and labor market consequences of four- to two-year college transfer

Facilitating student transfer from two-year to four-year institutions has been a focus of research and policy in recent years. Much less attention has been given to the phenomenon of four-year to two-year (4-2) college transfer. About 16 per cent of students who begin in a four-year college transfer to a two-year college within six years. Using public higher education data from one small state and using distance to the closest two-year college as an instrumental variable, this paper examines the effects of 4-2 transfer on 'struggling' students, those who earned less than a 3.0 grade point average in the first term.

Results indicate that these 4-2 transfer students are more likely than similar non-transfer students to attain two-year college credentials (including associate degrees and long- and short-term certificates); the gain is concentrated in women who tend to enroll in health-related programs. What is more, struggling students who transfer to two-year colleges are no less likely than struggling non-transfer students to earn a bachelor's degree. Early employment outcomes also indicate that the labor market does not penalize 4-2 transfer behavior. Falsification tests show strong first stage results and no correlation between distance and socioeconomic indicators, which supports the use of distance as an instrumental variable for 4-2 transfer status. The findings indicate that 4-2 transfer can improve college completion for students struggling in four-year institutions.

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