Is There a Post-Graduation Earnings Penalty for Community College Transfer Students Who Eventually Receive Baccalaureate Degrees?

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that students are increasingly choosing community colleges as their point-of-entry to post-secondary education. An important question, therefore, is how community college attendance impacts a student's economic future. This study is one of the first to examine early labor market outcomes for Baccalaureate degree recipients who transferred from a community college relative to those who did not. Selectivity corrected results for a sample of students drawn from the Baccalaureate and Beyond survey suggest that substantial earnings penalties exist for most community college transfers relative to non-transfers and university transfers. The notable exception is for Black students who are predicted to receive higher wages if they transfer from community colleges.