Tracking Transfer
Measures of Effectiveness in Helping Community College Students to Complete Bachelor’s Degrees
Updated September 4, 2025
This series was first developed in 2016 as a collaborative effort among the Clearinghouse Research Center, the Community College Research Center at Columbia University (CCRC), and Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. The scope and metrics were updated in 2025 to include additional student characteristics, state-level analyses, and additional outcomes for community college transfer students.
The Tracking Transfer report has key metrics for community college starters that enable colleges and institutions to benchmark and measure progress and completion for transfer students from two- to four-year institutions.
The current update examines students entering community college in the fall 2017 term and their transfer-out and bachelor’s completion rates within six years. An additional cohort is also presented: students who enter a four-year institution in the 2017-18 academic year after transferring from a community college. Persistence rates and bachelor’s completion rates are presented for these students.
Highlights from 2017 Entering Cohort
- Fewer than a third of first-time-ever-in-college students who began at a community college in fall 2017 transferred to a four-year institution within six years (31.6%). Of those who did transfer, slightly less than half completed a bachelor’s degree (49.7%). These rates are consistent with the previous entering cohort, after several years of small increases.
- Students who entered community college in fall 2017 with prior dual enrollment had higher transfer-out (46.9%) and bachelor’s completion rates (60.1%) than first-time-ever-in-college students.
- Most community college transfer students attended a public four-year institution (75.2%). Bachelor’s completion rates were also highest at public four-year institutions—70.3% of students who transferred from a community college to a public four-year institution in the 2017-2018 academic year earned a bachelor’s degree within six years.
- After transferring from a community college, 82 percent of students re-enrolled at their four-year transfer institution in the following academic year. Retention rates were higher for students who had earned an award before transferring (86.8%, 9.3pp higher than those who transferred without an award).
Data Dashboards:
Annual Updates:
2016 cohort: Data Update (xlsx)
2015 cohort: Data Update (xlsx)
2014 cohort: Data Update (xlsx)
2013 cohort: Data Update (xlsx)
2012 cohort: Data Update (xlsx)
2011 cohort: Data Update (xlsx)
2010 cohort: Full Report (pdf)