Beyond Access: Explaining Socioeconomic Differences in College Transfer. WISCAPE Working Paper

Reducing socioeconomic differences in college transfer requires a better understanding of how and why parental education, occupational class, and family income are associated with changing colleges. Building on prior studies of traditional community college transfer we explore relationships between those factors and two types of transfer among 4-year college students. Our results indicate that reverse transfer--the move from 4-year to community college--is more common among students from less-educated families partly because of lower levels of academic performance during their freshman year. In contrast, students from advantaged backgrounds in terms of class and income are more likely than others to engage in lateral transfer--4-year to 4-year--which may reflect individual preferences for changing colleges rather than a reaction to poor academic performance. Implications for policy and practice are discussed in light of the fact that only reverse transfer is associated with lower rates of degree completion. Description of variables is appended. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 12 footnotes.)