College Choice for Community Students

• In Event: College Access, Community Colleges, and Geography

Abstract

This study examines transfer patterns for a cohort of students transferring from California public community colleges. We first descriptively examine transfer patterns for different racial groups. We fit both a multinomial logistic regression model and conditional choice model to estimate the relationship between campus characteristics of the four-year colleges in our choice set and enrollment. Even after controlling for key individual level covariates including measures of academic performance and financial need, we find that Asian Americans are much more likely to enroll at more selective institutions compared to students from other racial groups. We find institutional characteristics of the four-year college such as location, college quality, and racial diversity are associated with college choice.

Author

• Jackson Yan, The University of Texas at Austin