Each year, millions of students begin their postsecondary journey at community colleges with the goal of earning a bachelor’s degree. Yet far fewer ultimately reach that milestone. One of the most persistent barriers is not whether credits transfer, but whether they count.

A new report from Ithaka S+R, Academic Momentum and Credit Mobility: Examining the Role of CUNY’s Transfer Explorer, explores how improving transparency around credit transfer can shape student outcomes. Drawing on administrative data from nearly 30,000 students across the City University of New York (CUNY) system, the study offers new evidence on what it takes to support meaningful academic progress after transfer.

The hidden problem behind transfer

Transfer is often framed as a policy issue, addressed through articulation agreements or systemwide guarantees. But for students, it is also an information problem.

Even when credits transfer, they may not apply toward major or general education requirements. Instead, they are frequently categorized as electives. This phenomenon, often described as “credit drift,” can slow progress, increase costs, and ultimately derail students’ plans to earn a bachelor’s degree.

Students navigating transfer pathways must make complex decisions about courses, programs, and institutions, often with incomplete or inconsistent information. Those with access to strong advising or informal knowledge networks are better positioned to navigate these challenges. Others are left to make high-stakes decisions with limited guidance.

A different approach: making transfer transparent

CUNY’s Transfer Explorer (T-REX), launched in 2020, was designed to address this information gap directly. T-REX is a public, systemwide tool that allows users to see how courses transfer across CUNY’s 20 undergraduate institutions and, importantly, whether those courses satisfy specific degree requirements. Rather than simply confirming that credits transfer, the tool shows how they apply to majors, minors, and general education pathways. This distinction is critical. For students, the difference between elective credit and degree-applicable credit can determine how long it takes to graduate and how much it costs.

What our research finds

Using a sample of 29,921 students who transferred from a CUNY community college to a bachelor’s-degree-granting institution between Fall 2020 and Spring 2025, the study examines whether use of T-REX is associated with improved early transfer outcomes.

Three findings stand out:

  1. T-REX use is associated with more degree-applicable credit. Across all models, students who used T-REX transferred more courses that counted toward non-elective degree requirements. In the most comprehensive model, T-REX use was associated with an increase of nearly half a course applied to major, minor, or general education requirements. This may seem modest, but in the context of transfer, even small gains in degree applicability can have meaningful implications for student progress. Each additional course that counts toward requirements reduces the need for excess coursework and helps maintain academic momentum.
  2. T-REX use does not increase total credits transferred. Importantly, the study finds no consistent relationship between T-REX use and the total number of courses transferred once other factors are taken into account. This result reflects the broader policy context within CUNY, where credits are generally guaranteed to transfer at least as electives. In this environment, the key challenge is not whether credits transfer, but whether they apply in ways that advance students toward completion. T-REX appears to influence the quality of transfer credit rather than the quantity.
  3. Institutions and majors matter. The study also highlights substantial variation in how transferred credits apply across receiving institutions and academic programs. Differences in degree requirements mean that the same set of courses can have very different outcomes depending on where and what a student studies. This reinforces the importance of tools like T-REX that allow students to compare pathways and make informed decisions before they transfer.

Why degree applicability matters for momentum

These findings align with a growing body of research on academic momentum. Students who accumulate credits that count toward their degree are more likely to stay on track and complete.

Conversely, accumulating excess or non-applicable credits can slow progress, increase financial burden, and discourage persistence. For many students, especially those balancing work, family, and financial constraints, these inefficiencies can be decisive.

T-REX does not change institutional policies or degree requirements. Instead, it helps students navigate them more effectively. By making transfer rules visible and actionable, it supports better decision-making at critical points in the student journey.

Implications for policy and practice

The findings point to several broader lessons for systems, states, and institutions working to improve transfer outcomes.

  • Transparency is a powerful intervention. Traditional transfer reforms often focus on formal agreements or structural alignment. While important, these approaches do not always address the day-to-day information challenges students face. Transparency tools like T-REX offer a complementary strategy. By making complex systems legible, they empower students to make choices that align with their goals.
  • Not all credits are equal. Efforts to improve transfer outcomes should move beyond counting credits to examining how those credits apply. Metrics that focus solely on credit accumulation can obscure important differences in student progress. Incorporating measures of degree applicability can provide a more accurate picture of transfer effectiveness.
  • Technology can scale advising capacity. Advising remains essential, but it is often unevenly distributed and resource-intensive. Public-facing tools can extend access to high-quality information, particularly for students who may not have consistent advising support. In this sense, tools like T-REX can help reduce reliance on informal knowledge and level the playing field for students navigating transfer pathways.

Looking ahead

This study focuses on early transfer outcomes. Future research will be needed to examine whether improvements in degree applicability translate into higher rates of bachelor’s degree completion. Even so, the findings offer encouraging evidence that relatively targeted interventions, such as improving transparency, can have measurable effects on student progress.

As more states and systems explore ways to strengthen transfer pathways, the lessons from CUNY’s Transfer Explorer are clear. Helping students understand not just whether their credits transfer, but whether they count, may be one of the most effective ways to support academic momentum and expand access to bachelor’s degree attainment.