Academic Performances of Matched Groups of Community College and 4-Year College Students

Abstract

A total of 180 June, 1964, high school graduates, ninety of whom entered a public junior college and ninety of whom entered 4-year institutions directly from high school, were studied through June, 1969. The two groups were matched in terms of sex, IQ, aptitude test scores, high school grade point averages (GPA’s), and high school majors. Although the junior college students attained higher mean GPA’s in the first 2 years of college (2.770 as compared with 2.368 on a 4.00 scale), a significant difference was not found in the upper division years, the native students earning a mean GPA of 2.747 and the junior college transfers a mean of 2.742. Of the initial groups of ninety each, fifty-five, or 61.2 percent, of the 4-year college freshmen received bachelor’s degrees as compared with sixty-one, or 67.1 percent, of the junior college freshmen after 5 years.