After serving in the Air Force in the early 1990s, Stephen Wells decided he wanted to earn his college degree.
He consulted officials at Duquesne University, who told him that he would need to re-establish an academic record to gain admission into the private school. They suggested that he enroll in a semester’s worth of classes at the Community College of Allegheny County.
Mr. Wells did enroll for a semester. And then one semester turned into a second, and a third, and a fourth — until he had earned his associate degree from CCAC. He then transferred to Duquesne, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.
Three decades later, Mr. Wells now helps oversee CCAC’s transfer and articulation programs as the colleges’ interim chief academic officer. He considers himself a proud CCAC alumnus and “product” of transfer opportunities.
“In looking back, after having finished a whole bunch of degrees, some of my best academic experiences [and] best educational experiences were at CCAC,” Mr. Wells said. “It’s not just the money. It’s the whole experience.”
CCAC has articulation agreements with 29 colleges and universities spanning nine states in 125 programs. Over half of CCAC students are on a pathway to transfer to a four-year institution right now, Mr. Wells said.
Nationwide, about a third of community college students transfer to four-year institutions.
Locally, community colleges offer hundreds of transfer agreements and partnerships to help students easily transition from their institutions to four-year ones. Programs like these can help students save money while also enjoying the benefits of a traditional college experience.
These programs can vary in opportunity and pathway. For instance, the Community College of Beaver County and Geneva College offer a 1-2-1 program in nursing, through which students spend their first and fourth years at Geneva completing traditional classroom-based credits. The second and third years of their education, meanwhile, are spent at CCBC, where students complete clinicals.
When students complete the 1-2-1 program, they earn both their associate and bachelor’s degrees. That’s typical through many of these programs.
“After their second year with [CCBC], they will graduate with an associate degree in nursing, and an associate degree in nursing [from CCBC] allows them to sit for the national licensing exam, and they usually do. We encourage them to do that within six months of graduating from here,” said Tina Gallup, a CCBC nursing professor and assistant to the dean of health sciences. “Then in the fall, [students] go back to Geneva, they complete their one year and they will have a bachelor’s of science in nursing.”
CCBC has articulation agreements with over 35 higher education institutions. That includes four partnerships between CCBC’s Johnson School of Aviation Sciences and four-year colleges or universities.
Partnerships with four-year institutions can allow students to receive a CCBC education in aviation while also enjoying traditional aspects of college life, said John Higgs, dean of the college’s aviation school.
“CCBC does not have dorms, so our four-year partners provide students with the ability to live on campus and enjoy a more traditional college experience,” Mr. Higgs said in an email. “Similarly, CCBC has a limited athletic program for men and women, thus CCBC’s four-year partners provide students wishing to continue to participate in the sports at the intercollegiate level the opportunity to do so, while also pursuing their goals in aviation.”
And by starting their postsecondary education at a community college, students can also save money. According to lending marketplace Lending Tree, students who earn their first 60 credits at a community college save over $11,000.
Of course, money is only saved if colleges and universities accept community college credits. Students occasionally face difficulties when credits won’t transfer from one institution to another.
That’s why admissions officials at Slippery Rock University said their tagline is “transfer made easy.” About half of SRU’s transfer students come from community colleges, according to Robert Lagnese, Slippery Rock’s director of transfer and readmissions.
“We created a one-stop shop experience,” Mr. Lagnese said. “We can admit these students, we can evaluate credits … we do orientation for all the students and we do scholarship awards all through our admissions operations, so students rarely ever have to do a second update or an outreach on our campus once they’ve met with us.”
But despite the prevalence of articulation agreements and transfer programs, the share of community college students who go on to earn their bachelor’s degrees is low. Only 16% earn a bachelor’s degree within six years, according to a February report by the Community College Research Center. In Pennsylvania, that number is slightly higher, at 17%.
“These findings show us that while much more needs to be done, especially in support of low-income and students of color, Pennsylvania is ahead of most other states in helping students who start at community colleges reach their goals of attaining bachelor’s degrees,” Tatiana Velasco, lead author of CCRC’s report, said in a news release.
First Published: March 18, 2024, 4:00 a.m.
Updated: March 18, 2024, 6:05 p.m.