Alternative Paths to College Completion : The Effect of Attending a Two-Year School on the Probability of Completing a Four-Year Degree

Recent research indicates that college students who transfer from community colleges are significantly less likely to complete a four-year college degree than students who begin at four-year institutions. This paper estimates models of college completion for both types of students. Based on these results, an Oaxaca decomposition indicates that students who attend two-year colleges are at a disadvantage due primarily to lower individual quality rather than the lower quality of two-year colleges. This result has implications for public policies that seek to increase the role of two-year colleges as a means to increase the number of students completing four-year degrees