Four-year institutions increasingly rely on community college transfers to stabilize enrollment, but many of these students never finish their degrees. According to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), only 49% of community college transfers who began in 2016 earned a bachelor’s degree — essentially a coin flip.
The Eduventures 2025 Admitted Student Research™ offers a clue: more than two-thirds of community college transfer admits reported difficulties during the transfer process itself. These are students who succeeded in getting to your campus yet arrived already off balance.
Their experiences point to a deeper issue: the transfer pathway is financially fragile, structurally inconsistent, and far less seamless than many institutions assume.
Too often, institutions assume that partnering with local community colleges, securing articulation agreements, and enrolling their students is enough to stabilize enrollment. The reality is more complicated.
Community college transfers account for just 63% of all four-year transfer activity, according to NSC; the remaining students arrive laterally from other four-year institutions with no structured pathways to guide them. And even community college transfers — those with advising support and articulated credits — do not enjoy a clear advantage. Both groups encounter unexpected barriers once they arrive, making retention just as critical as recruitment in any transfer strategy.
The Eduventures Admitted Student Research, which includes transfer admits, highlights the unexpected challenges students encounter when moving from a community college to a four-year institution. Figure 1 illustrates specific pain points in the transfer process.
Figure 1
Figure 1 shows that 26% of transfer students reported confusion during the transfer process — confusion driven largely by finances. Nearly a third received less financial aid than they expected, and another 23% anticipated graduating with more debt than planned. Nineteen percent found that credits did not transfer as expected, adding both time and cost. In contrast, uncertainty about school choice or the decision to transfer is far less common.
The dominant theme is financial mismatch: transfer students are less likely than first years to receive scholarships or grants and more likely to face higher debt loads. What may seem predictable to institutions is often a shock to students. The community-college-to-state-school pathway is widely viewed as the most affordable route to a bachelor’s degree, an assumption reinforced by online forums and well-meaning advice.
For many students, transfer is driven by financial pressure, not careful planning. Community college transfer admits reported household incomes under $100,000 at far higher rates than first-year students (61% vs. 38%) and are more likely to be first-generation (53% vs. 28%). Their decisions sit at the intersection of financial need and institutional complexity, where an unexpected lack of aid can quickly derail their educational trajectories.
So where do these students, who have already navigated financial aid once, struggle most? Figure 2 compares the types of support community college transfer, and first-year students say they need to manage the financial aid process.
Figure 2
Figure 2 shows that both first year and transfer students want clearer information about scholarships and better access to financial aid advisors, ideally through proactive outreach. But important differences emerge between the two groups.
Transfer students are less interested in general financial aid guidance, such as how to complete the FAFSA, because they have already done it. What they want instead is individualized support: to help understand how their specific circumstances affect aid eligibility and which federal resources remain available to them.
In many cases, their familiarity with the process may create a false sense of financial preparedness. When aid packages from transfer schools don’t align with expectations, their need for guidance increases sharply. In hindsight, many transfer students wish for more advising at both their transfer institutions (29%) and their colleges of origin (28%).
This indicates that even with prior experience, the transfer process remains complex and unpredictable — one misstep away from becoming a financial minefield.
The Bottom Line
Transferring from a community college to a four-year school is rarely seamless. Many students encounter unexpected financial hurdles that challenge the belief that the transfer pathway is the more affordable option. These obstacles reveal clear opportunities to better support these students. Here are a few:
- Communicate costs and aid clearly and early. Too many transfer students are surprised by their financial aid packages. Be explicit up front about tuition, expected costs, available transfer scholarships, and the role of loans.
- Offer personalized advising that integrates academics and finances. Transcript evaluation and credit transfer are essential, but not enough. Transfer students also need guidance on how to pay for their remaining degrees — before and after they arrive.
- Make the transfer pathway more affordable. Advising can’t overcome financial barriers alone. Increase grant and scholarship opportunities for transfers or strengthen credit transfer generosity to shorten time to degree and improve outcomes.
