Interesting article by Tim Post (@posttim) looking at the increasing population of mostly community college transfer students. The cost of tuition is a prime reason for starting at a two-year college.

The article leaves me with several unanswered questions. Community college officials state their students do as well or better than students who do all four years at the U of MN but offer no evidence.

The U of MN has survey evidence that transfer students are less satisfied with their experience than students who start as freshmen. A national survey (National Survey on Student Engagement) finds that transfer students take part in fewer campus activities.

We need student ages to understand this better. What’s the median and average age of the transfer students? If they are older — say past 25 — it would make sense that they might feel a bit out of it and this would make them less satisfied. I would also guess that many of these students are holding down jobs and going to school part-time which does not help in integrating them in campus life.

But really, I shouldn’t have to guess. The U of MN should do the research and share it. This would make a great longitudinal study (and probably should have been started a few years ago).