Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities (review)

"In an increasingly competitive world economy, America's economic strength depends upon the education and skills of its workers.… To meet this economic imperative, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training and set a new national goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world …"

– President Barack Obama

Emerging from the shadows of this daunting goal, Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities explores recent trends in educational attainment in the United States. The authors posit "educational attainment in the United States is highly consequential" (p. xiii); as such they use this opportunity to not only explore the overall levels and patterns of educational attainment, but the disparities based on race/ethnicity, gender, SES and institutional type.

Bowen, Chingos and McPherson begin by providing both a historical and analytical review of American higher education. This is followed by a more narrowly tailored discussion of the educational outcomes of students at 21 flagship universities and four state system universities. Their focus on public universities is quite extensive given that these institutions educate more than two-thirds of full-time degree seeking students at 4-year colleges and universities in the country. In fact, the shear scope of this research makes this text one of the most comprehensive analyses and data sources focusing on educational attainment at public institutions.

Crossing the Finish Line is divided into 12 chapters that explore the findings of several studies conducted by the authors that are related to degree completion. Although the chapters can be examined as individual readings they are all very much inter-related and help tell a more comprehensive story of college completion in public universities. The authors begin by providing the context of their research in the first three chapters of the text and discuss a variety of academic outcomes such as time-to-degree and college GPAs, as well as frequently used predictors for student success including high school GPA, standardized test scores and achievement tests. The later chapters focus on the educational outcomes of specific student populations including students from low-income backgrounds, racial minorities and transfer students. This is followed by a detailed analysis of financial aid programs at institutional, state and national levels.

One the most insightful chapters of the text explores the notion of "overmatching" and "undermatching" with regards to the type of institution a student chooses to attend. The authors found that students who chose to attend more rigorous or highly selective institutions performed better when compared to their peers who chose to attend less selective institutions. This chapter alone could be used as a primary teaching tool for greater exploration of the impact of institutional selectivity and college choice on student performance. The very organization of the book provides an opportunity for the text to be used in its entirety during discussions or for individual chapters to be explored to gain greater insight on specific populations and student outcomes.

Crossing the Finish Line not only provides an extensive look at the current state of affairs in higher education and factors affecting college completion, but it concludes by asking the most important question, where do we go from here? One of the most captivating segments of this book is the final chapter. The authors did a superb job of connecting all the pieces of the educational attainment puzzle. They artfully summarized their findings, while introducing the challenges that must be addressed if we are to improve college completion at public universities.

Bowen, Chingos, and McPherson should be commended for undertaking this significant study using such a large dataset. Additionally they found a way to skillfully present their findings in a text that addresses the broader concerns of the higher education community while not neglecting specific outcomes and target populations which also warrant significant study.

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