On August 31, 2021, the Research Center issued a comprehensive annual report, revealing that American colleges lost nearly 200,000 transfer students in the first full year of the pandemic. Our special journalist’s report, “Bucking the Trend: How Some Institutions Grew Their Transfer Enrollment Amid a Pandemic” offers insights into how some colleges were able to grow their transfer enrollment in 2020-2021 even as numbers were declining nationally.
Year-by-year rates of persistence, transfer, completion, and stop-out can help states and institutions better identify effective intervention points to increase student success.
This report offers insights about students’ subsequent enrollments and completions, based on the most current national data that tracks individual students over time and across institutions and across state lines since the first Some College, No Degree report was released in 2014.
By the end of year four, 43.7 percent had completed a postsecondary credential, while 23.0 percent were no longer enrolled. By the end of year six, 64.3 percent had graduated, while 26.6 percent had left college without earning a credential.
By the end of year four, 42.1 percent of individuals who began college in fall 2011 had completed a postsecondary credential, while 23.5 percent were no longer enrolled. By the end of year six, 63.1 percent had graduated, while 27.4 percent had left college without earning a credential.
By the end of year four, 40.5 percent of individuals who began college in fall 2010 as full-time degree-seeking students had completed a postsecondary credential, while 24.5 percent were no longer enrolled. By the end of year six, 61.1 percent had graduated, while 28.5 percent had left college without earning a credential.
This snapshot goes beyond traditional measures of postsecondary attainment by tracking the fall 2009 entering cohort over time, and showing persistence, stop-out, and completion rates at the end of each subsequent academic year. The model tracks outcomes for both full-time and part-time starters, and takes spring and summer terms into account.
Signature Report 7 examines the “some college, no degree” phenomenon to better understand the value of some college in its own right and as well as the contribution the “some college, no degree” population can make to achieving college completion goals.
The first Signature Report separates fact from fiction on the Great Recession’s impact on higher education enrollment, bringing college administrators and policymakers the knowledge on how the changed economy has altered student behaviors in enrollment and persistence.
