Unlocking College Momentum: How Transferring College Credits Earned in High School Relates to Postsecondary Outcomes

• In Event: Promise Fulfilled? The Transfer of College Credits Earned in High School

Abstract

Objectives: We examined the extent to which college credits earned in high school through dual enrollment (DE) or Advanced Placement (AP) transferred into University of North Carolina (UNC) system institutions, and how the number of credits transferred related to key postsecondary outcomes such as bachelor’s degree attainment, time to degree, and advanced coursetaking.

Theoretical framework: There has been substantial attention paid to the transferability of courses from two-year to four-year colleges, with successful credit transfer shown to be an important predictor of postsecondary success (Monaghan & Attewell, 2015). However, to our knowledge, no one has yet conducted an in-depth study exploring the transferability of college credits earned in high school or their relationship with outcomes. As with the two- to four-year transfer, transferring higher numbers of credits could create a momentum that helps students persist and graduate. It could also reduce time to degree (Evans, 2019b). Alternatively, students may not save time, but they could end up with a richer college experience, such as taking more advanced courses or adding a second major (Gurantz, 2019).

Methods: We conducted descriptive analysis of the number and percentage of credits earned in high school that successfully transferred, exploring these measures overall and by subgroups. To assess the relationship between successful credit transfer and outcomes, we fit multivariate regression models with binary and continuous measures of credits transferred as the predictors and controlling for student, high school, and postsecondary institution characteristics. We separately assessed DE and AP credits transferred in addition to the total transferred.

Data sources: We linked student-level data for ten cohorts of North Carolina high school graduates (2013 to 2022) who enrolled at a UNC system institution within one year of high school. Our longitudinal dataset included high school data, postsecondary and dual enrollment coursetaking data from the North Carolina Community College System and the UNC system, and postsecondary enrollment and completion data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

Results: We found that a larger share of DE credits transferred successfully than AP credits and that there has been a sizable increase over time in the number of students earning DE credits (Table 1). There were large gaps in the average number of AP credits transferred by student subgroups with somewhat smaller disparities for DE credits transferred (Table 2). We observed positive associations between transferring DE and AP credits and bachelor’s degree attainment, advanced coursetaking, and double majoring (Table 3), with more credits transferred generally associated with larger benefits. We also found that transferring credits successfully related to less time to a bachelor’s degree. There was variation by type of credit transferred in the relationship between credits transferred and students’ majors in college.

Significance: This study documents that successfully transferring credits earned in high school into a postsecondary institution is related to a suite of desirable outcomes at the college level. However, it also shows that there are important disparities by student subgroup in the number of credits that students transfer into college.

Authors

• Brian M. Phillips, RAND Corporation

• Christine Mulhern, RAND

• Michelle Bongard, RAND Corporation