The Effect of Postsecondary Coenrollment on College Success

This study finds that co-enrollment – defined as simultaneous enrollment at multiple postsecondary institutions during the same academic term – has a significant positive effect on educational attainment and postsecondary persistence for students beginning at community colleges and four-year institutions.

Over the past two decades, postsecondary enrollment patterns have become more diversified, with an increasing number of students forgoing the linear pathway through a single institution, and instead, attending multiple institutions at the same time or moving back and forth between institutions.

The authors conclude that co-enrollment seems to hold strong promise for providing a more efficient postsecondary pathway instead of causing undue complexity or greater risk of dropout.