Paper Title
Is there a future earnings penalty for bachelor’s degree recipients who initially attend two-year colleges?
Abstract
We examine early labor market outcomes for baccalaureate degree recipients who transferred from a two-year
college relative to those attended the same four-year college or who transferred from a different four-year college. Selectivity
corrected results for a sample of students drawn from the High School and Beyond survey suggest that annual earnings for
women and non-white two-year college transfers are not statistically different from those of similar direct four-year
attendees and four-year college transfers. Such findings, combined with the lower two-year attendance costs suggest that
initial two-year college attendance may be a good investment for students who persist to graduation..
Keywords- Higher Education, Community College, Bachelor’s Degree.