High school students’ college outcomes in a dual enrollment program, 1998–2015

AIMS: This paper examines the college outcomes of dual-enrolled high school health science careers’ students from 1998 to 2015. METHODS: For this retrospective descriptive evaluation of the program, the university requested from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data on 6,831 students who had earned college credit through the Rutgers high school program. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis using Excel. RESULTS: Final dataset had 5,315 students, with 3,339 students who had been in college long enough to graduate. Of the 2,358 (71%) who had graduated from college, 62% (1,470) completed their associates or bachelor’s degrees within 2 or 4 years, while an additional 25% (581) finished their respective degrees within 3 to 6 years. Students attending 2-year colleges had a 42% overall, on-time graduation rate, and students attending 4-year colleges had a 95% graduation rate. One or more health professions degrees were earned by 36% (862) of graduated students. DISCUSSION: College degree completion rates of these students are better than national performance and many students entered health careers. This paper adds to the literature on design and outcomes of dual high school/college enrollment at a time when states are expanding these partnerships.