Community College Bachelor’s Degrees: How CCB Graduates’ Earnings Compare to AAs and BAs

Riley Acton, Camila Morales, Kalena Cortes, Julia A. Turner and Lois Miller

No 34684, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We provide the first descriptive analysis of the economic value of Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degrees by examining graduates’ early-career earnings, the costs of completing these programs, and the alignment between field of study and subsequent employment. Using administrative data and controlling for institution and field, we find that CCB graduates earn $4,000 to $9,000 more annually than Associate’s (AA) degree holders one year after graduation but experience average earnings penalties of roughly $2,000 relative to traditional Bachelor’s (BA) recipients. These averages mask substantial heterogeneity: penalties are largest in Computer and Information Technology and Engineering Technology, whereas CCB graduates in Nursing, other Healthcare fields, Business, and Criminal Justice exhibit minimal or no penalties. To contextualize these returns, we analyze tuition and fee structures across CCB-granting institutions and identify two dominant pricing models—constant and escalating. Total CCB program costs fall between those of AA and BA degrees, with escalating structures increasing upper-division prices by about 40 percent. Finally, we examine field-to-industry match patterns and find that CCB graduates in fields with well-defined occupational pathways, such as Health Professions and Education, are highly concentrated in aligned industries, while graduates in more diffuse fields, such as Computer Science, are more broadly dispersed.

JEL-codes: I21 I23 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-01
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