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While I respect the service that community colleges provide for underserved populations, the success and graduation rate for students who begin their college careers at a four-year institution are much higher than those students entering a two-year.

There are several reasons for this. One, students at four-year schools are much more likely to be living on campus, which gives them many more opportunities to become involved in the campus community. The more engaged students are in campus life, the more likely they are to persist and graduate (see George Kuh for more detail).

The mission of four-year institutions is another reason why students are more likely to complete a degree. One of their key goals is to see their students through to degree completion. While the rankings system is currently being debated, one component of institutional rankings is the school's graduation rate. The faculty/staff to student ratio is also usually higher, which gives students the support services they need.

Finally, students often have difficulty getting their community college credits to transfer to a four-year institution. Facing that difficulty and the possibility of repeating a class they have already completed, students may get discouraged and choose not to continue. New services and organizations are dedicating themselves to this task, however, so this will hopefully change in the next few years. For one example of a network of institutions dedicated to easing the transfer burden for students is The National Articulation and Transfer Network (www.natn.org).

Community colleges are a great way to save some money by taking certain courses, and they are certainly known to support the populations often underserved in traditional four-year universities. However, the success rates of students entering four-year universities from the beginning is much stronger making it a wiser choice when the choice is available.

Learn more about this author, Jasmine Paul.
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