The hidden costs of transferring to a 4-year college
Kirk Carapezza
June 15, 2023
A stellar high school student in Brockton, Massachusetts, William Kimani earned so many credits at a nearby community college that he graduated from high school with an associate degree too.
The son of Kenyan immigrants, he thought it would save him time and money when he enrolled at the University of Chicago and transferred his credits.
Instead, he learned a hard lesson in college economics: The university told him none of the two-year associate degree credits would count toward his bachelor’s degree.
“Zero,” Kimani said on a recent morning, recalling the blunt email he received from college administrators in Chicago. It “was quite painful because I feel like the degree that I worked towards was a lot of work — a lot of effort.”
