This seems like strange methodology to show that it’s “increasingly” difficult to transfer to elite institutions, assuming the summary here is reasonably complete. It says nothing about the acceptance rate for transfers at these schools, only the proportion of transfers in the student body. And it doesn’t even compare the proportion of community college transfers to numbers from previous years. Couldn’t it be that students are happier at the schools they start at than they were in the past?

jcl, grad student, at 11:00 am EDT on June 19, 2006

In the ten years I taught at a cc, I could count about 5 students that might be elite college material. One had several kids, a couple were older and another was only attending class to look good at sentencing. It’s not surprising that the number is so small. Kids who are smart enough to attend an elite college would be bored stiff at most cc’s. I doubt they’d make it past the first semester.

owen, at 11:05 pm EDT on June 19, 2006

No elitism here

Owen, I can’t help but wonder which community college you taught at. At the one where I work, located in New York State and considered one of the top ten in the nation, we regularly transfer a significant number of students to top tier schools. Our Honors program attracts many high-caliber students who have no problem getting accepted to these schools upon completion of their A.S. degree.

RF, at 11:10 am EDT on June 20, 2006

Closed Doors

It’s detrimental to students and to academics to automatically associate poor academic performance with community college attendance. Modern community colleges are poised on the cutting edge of academic progress, researching and developing programs and curricula that will help pull students and communities into the world of work. Academic performance is very much a part of that picture and students are expected to perform and progress as well as their peers at other institutions.

Certainly, some students who performed poorly in high school opt to begin their educational careers at the cc leve. More power to them! However, many students begin their college careers at community college because of issues totally unrelated to academic performance—time, costs and proximity to family. Community colleges also serve as a wonderful means of transition for students coming from largely rural communities—those who just aren’t ready socially for a jump to a large institution.

Projections are that upwards of 60 percent of new U.S. four-year college/university admissions will come from community college transfers in future years. Institutions overlooking transfer applicants may well do significant damage to their enrollment projections.

Lynn Byrne, Independent Educational Consultant/Author/Editor, at 12:25 pm EDT on June 20, 2006

capactiy

In 17 years working at an “elite” private, the issue of transfer students often comes down to one of capacity— with a very low attrition rate, except for some engineering programs, we just don’t have room to accept transfer students — regardless of their initial educational origin. How do community college transfer stack up against transfers from other types of schools? I think that you will find that most selective colleges that retain their students take a limited number of transfer students over all — and it not implicit or explicit discrimination against community college graduates. Also, the numbers that apply from community colleges are low — maybe these same students have decided that taking on debt is not in their best interest — and debt is a requirement for all students with need at most private colleges.

Dr. E., University Financial Aid at Johns Hopkins University, at 5:20 am EDT on June 21, 2006

Not the case in California public colleges

At UCs(the more selective California public universities), 28% of the graduates are transfers. At CSUs that number increases to 58%. Transfers also have better graduation rates than freshmen, at least in California. While it’s incredibly competitive to get into UC Berkeley or UCLA, pretty much any decent student who’s taken the necessary courses can get into an unimpacted CSU.

source:http://rpgroup.org/Projects/CCC-S...ScanCCC-StrategicPln-RPCSS-07-05.pdf

I went to a fairly selective(not ivy league) college when I was a freshman but couldn’t handle the social environment. And yes, I had very strong high school stats. I went to cc for a year and then transferred to another university.

Probably half of my community college calculus class was eligible to go to either UC Berkeley or UCLA. It’s fairly common for students who could easily get into less selective colleges to go to cc for a chance to get into elite public colleges.

As long as I took classes with prereqs, I found my cc classes to be challenging. Many of the cc instructors also taught at universities. My transition from high school to university was brutal while my transition from community college to university was seamless(3.65 cc gpa, 3.7 upper division gpa).

I was admitted to a private college(less elite than my first) but chose not to go due to credit transfer issues and being afraid it would be hard to fit in socially as one of a very few transfers. I chose instead to go to a nearby state university.

Very few cc students I knew(even younger ones) had even considered private colleges due to cost, location, and credit transfer issues. In contrast, I could even go to assist.org to see how my credits would transfer to colleges in advance.

LL, at 4:30 am EST on December 15, 2006