New community college students who start a college-level program quickly are more likely to complete a degree, concludes Get with the Program, a new working paper by Davis Jenkins of the Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Many new students arrive at community colleges without clear goals for college and careers. Community colleges offer a wide array of programs but typically provide little guidance to help students choose and successfully enter a program of study. Community college departments often do not closely monitor the progress of students who do enter their programs to ensure that they complete.
The study tracks the progress of first-time college students over five years using course-taking data from an anonymous sample of community colleges. “Students who do not enter a program within a year of enrollment are far less likely to ever enter a program and therefore less likely to earn a credential.”
