Forbes: Thousands of promising students aren’t getting bachelor’s degrees

The executive director of the Kaplan Educational Foundation spotlights ATI’s research on the underutilized talent pipeline to bachelor’s degrees: high-achieving community college students.

In the American higher education system, community colleges are often viewed as gateways to higher education for first-generation, low-income, and other non-traditional students. Unfortunately, the gateways we’ve envisioned aren’t leading to four-year pathways in reality, keeping some of our most talented students from reaching their full potential. New research from the American Talent Initiative (ATI) shows that more than 50,000 high-achieving, low- and moderate-income community college students don’t transfer to four-year institutions — every year. Furthermore, about 15,000 of these students have GPAs of 3.7 or higher, which means they would be competitive candidates no matter where they applied. What’s holding them back? According to ATI, a lack of information and support keeps these students from applying to the four-year schools where they’d thrive.