Americans Give Good Grades to 2-Year, 4-Year Colleges

A new poll by Gallup finds that Americans give fairly similar grades, and positive ones, to two-year and four-year colleges. Asked to base their judgments on their own knowledge, 70 percent of Americans said that the quality of four-year institutions was good or excellent. The figure was only slightly lower, 66 percent, for community colleges. But the figure was much lower -- 36 percent -- for online-only programs. Gallup conducts surveys for Inside Higher Ed, but this poll was conducted independently of Inside Higher Ed.