Predictors of Transfer to 4-Year, For-Profit Institutions

Abstract

Logistic regression was employed to determine whether student transfer to for-profit, 4-year colleges (as opposed to other 4-year colleges) is a function of students' social background characteristics, the students' academic experiences at the community college, and the transfer context of the community college attended (i.e., the overall transfer rate of students from the community college and the distance of the community college from a public university). Study results, based on records for 613,595 California community college students who transferred to 4-year institutions between July 2000 and June 2004, indicate that the strongest predictors of transfer to for-profit institutions include part-time enrollment, age, and grade point average. However, students of color were more likely to transfer to for-profit institutions than White students, and students attending community colleges with lower overall transfer rates were also more likely to transfer to the for-profit sector. Finally, students who used the community college transfer center were less likely to transfer to 4-year, for-profit universities.