Can Dual Enrollment Participation Impact College Application Choice?

Educators often wonder how they can encourage high-achieving students from minoritized backgrounds to apply to more selective colleges. A recent study from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University’s Teachers College discovered a promising proposition: dual enrollment (DE) courses where students receive both college and high school credit simultaneously.

We talked to Vivian Yuen Ting Liu and Veronica Minaya, who, along with Di Xu, authored the paper titled “The Impact of Dual Enrollment on College Application Choice and Admission Success” about the implications of their research for students, parents, high schools, and colleges.

Study Aimed to Understand the Problem of “Undermatching

The phenomenon known as “undermatching” — where well-qualified students do not enroll at colleges that match their academic profiles — has been a persistent problem. 2013 research from the Brookings Institution found that most high-achieving, low-income students don’t apply to any selective colleges.

Undermatched students, then, do not reap the benefits of attending selective, well-resourced institutions, which, in turn, has long-term implications for college completion and career.

Though earlier studies noted that disadvantaged students were often not applying to selective colleges, they did not explore their reasons.

“Enrollment can be driven by changes in application behavior, or it can be because admission officers may be more prone to accept or admit these students. So we were interested in understanding what was behind those figures,” said Minaya, a senior research associate and program lead at CCRC.

In designing the study, Liu, Minaya, and Xu used a data set that linked “students’ DE participation with their application and admission outcomes to all in-state public colleges.” The sample consisted of 115,413 students, “18.4% of whom dual-enrolled in grades 11 (8.2%) or 12 (15.6%) and 5.3% of whom dual-enrolled in both grades.”

Researchers also identified the selectivity of the in-state, public, four-year colleges to which each student applied.

DE Students More Likely to Apply to Selective Colleges

The study suggests DE participation influenced the likelihood of applying to highly selective institutions. While taking DE credits did not increase the number of students’ four-year college applications, it did boost the number of selective, in-state institutions to which they applied.

Notably, when the researchers broke out the findings by race, they discovered these results were driven primarily by Black and to a lesser degree Latino students.

“Compared to White students, each DE credit Black students attempted increased the number of colleges they applied to by 0.4 colleges and the chance of applying to any four-year college by 15.6 percentage points,” the report notes.

While DE didn’t impact the number of applications Hispanic students submitted or the likelihood they would apply to four-year colleges, it did increase their “likelihood of applying to at least a moderately selective college.”

What factors are driving these results?

For one, students taking DE coursework were influenced by like-minded peers planning on applying to more selective colleges.

“Many DE students are already interested in applying to college, but these courses do encourage them to explore more selective colleges that better match them academically,” said Liu, who is the associate director of evaluation, office of applied research, evaluation, and data analytics at the City University of New York (CUNY).

What’s more, students who participated in DE on college campuses were more familiar with college life and more likely to use on-campus resources, like advising.

“There must be some mechanism we don’t observe in the data that might be attributed to dual enrollment by exposure to the program itself, or by exposure to advisors. Because now that you are enrolling in these courses, you have access to college academic advisors who may guide you through a degree plan, right?” Minaya said.

Dual enrollment participation also increased the likelihood that students would be accepted to a greater number of colleges and to more selective colleges.

For one, participation in DE courses told admissions offices that students were college-ready and academically prepared. Moreso, the researchers suggested that low-income and/or minority students who applied were accepted, at least in part, because they learned academic skills and behavior in DE coursework.

“It’s not only that they’re more confident about their own academic ability, but they are actually more academically prepared,” adds Liu.

Study’s Implications for Stakeholders

Encouraging DE enrollment for high school students can bolster diverse enrollment, especially for Black students, at more selective in-state colleges. How can stakeholders expand participation in these programs?

For one, it’s worthwhile to note that DE programs vary considerably. The program CCRC studied was free to students, but other DE programs charge a fee. Some DE programs are taught in two-year or four-year colleges by college faculty, while others are taught in high schools by high school teachers. Some students must take a standardized test to enter programs, while others are admitted on high school GPA alone. Only some programs provide transportation to and from college campuses.

All of these factors influence student participation in DE courses and may also impact their selective college application behavior.

“If the program is not implemented the same way across all different contexts, you cannot necessarily expect the same exact results,” Minaya said.

What’s more, parents need to be made aware about DE programs and how they may impact their children’s college and career success.

“Parents or legal guardians who don’t attend information sessions about dual enrollment because they have multiple jobs, for instance, may never learn about the program, and if they do, they may not be able to afford all program costs such as tuition, fees, and transportation costs to testing centers and the college sites. It’s a matter of removing barriers and expanding equitable access to dual enrollment,” added Minaya.

At both the high school and college level, the researchers suggest advisors could help funnel students into DE programs, as well as prepare them more fully for the selective college admissions process.

“The role of advisors in both high school and college is important. If you are enrolled in a community college for DE courses, advisors can provide guidance on your college plans and four-year opportunities available and assist you on your college application process. That’s big, particularly for someone without a parent with college experience,” said Minaya.

The researchers also suggest college admissions officers should take DE participation more seriously in admitting students.

“Admissions departments tend to be like, great students have done AP courses, but DE classes haven’t gotten that status yet. But with DE, you can’t game it like you can with AP tests; you can’t just hire a tutor [like for an AP test]. On top of that, students have shown their college readiness by successfully completing a college course while in high school. It is also important to note that schools with more AP offerings tend to be in more affluent neighborhoods than schools with more DE offerings, and with that equity mindset in mind, I think colleges should consider dual enrollment in the admission process,” said Liu.

Ultimately, the CCRC report demonstrates how DE participation boosts stronger matching between students and more selective colleges. Parents, students, advisors, and college admissions offices can use these results to encourage students’ participation in DE courses.

“Applying to college is a gamble, and many low-income and racial minority students who are traditionally underrepresented in college are missing those resources. So DE is almost acting as an extra resource to teach them how to do well in this ‘game,'” said Liu.