Four-Year College Found to Give Completion Edge to Low-Income Students

*Two-year community college has become the gateway for Latinos to higher education, and this study finds that for lower income students (read here Latinos) four year institutions increase bachelor degree completion by fifty percent. It’s a big deal, if we’re talking exclusively about degree completion. But what about students who attend two year schools for technical or certificate completion? It’s about making options available, isn’t it? VL

By Caralee Adams, Education Week

New research illustrates the graduation advantage of attending a four-year university over a community college, particularly for low-income students.

The working paper, “College Access, Initial College Choice, and Degree Completion” by Joshua Goodman, an assistant professor at Harvard University, and Michael Hurwitiz and Jonathan Smith, both of the College Board, recently was posted on the National Bureau of Economic Research website.

The research analyzed a group of students who took the SAT in Georgia, comparing what happened with those whose scores were just above the minimum requirement to be admitted at a state public four-year institution and those whose performance fell just short.

The paper found attending a four-year college increased bachelor degree completion by about 30 percentage points over other alternatives, and the advantage for low-income students was 50 percent. Wealthier students only experienced a 13 percent gain in completion at a four-year school, compared to a two-year institution.

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