Copiah-Lincoln Community College students are consistentlyshowing that they are competitive with students at four-yearuniversities, not only during the time they are on the Co-Lincampus, but also when they’ve gone on to the next level.

Co-Lin Vice President of Instruction Dr. Jane Hulon said thatwhile the GPAs have been sent in a different format this year, the2.77 university-level average GPA of Co-Lin students for the Fallof 2007 is well above the 2.66 university-level average GPA for allthe community colleges in the state.

While only Meridian Community College’s overall university-levelaverage was higher than Co-Lin’s, at 2.81, Itawamba CommunityCollege and Northeast Mississippi Community College both posted a2.77 as well. East Central Community College and SouthwestCommunity College both posted a 2.76, still above the statecommunity college average.

“We’re very pleased to get that information,” she said. “Thesenumbers are comparing ours that transfer from Co-Lin to those whostarted off at the four-year universities, and they track theprogress of both and compare them.”

Hulon said each university has its own method of tallying thescores, but they all take the GPA of a student during theircommunity college years and combine it with their progress at theuniversity in order to come up with the average. Some classes donot transfer to the higher level, so the GPAs are recalculated andadded into the classes at the university level.

“It’s complicated and it varies a bit from institution toinstitution,” she said.

Meanwhile, university-by-university numbers show Co-Lin studentsabove the transfer average at seven of the eight four-yearuniversities in the state, with Mississippi State’s Co-Lintransfers being the only ones below, and even then not far. MSUWolfpack transfers posted a 2.67 average as opposed to the school’saverage of 2.68 for all community college transfers, and the 2.79GPA of university natives.

Students from Co-Lin also topped the GPAs of the four-yearcollege natives at all the universities except MSU and theUniversity of Mississippi.

“Definitely, as far as GPAs go, I think our students arewell-positioned to compete or excede the performance of four-yearuniversity students,” Hulon said.

Co-Lin students at Mississippi Valley State University, with awhopping 3.92 GPA posted a full point on the scale above thetransfer average GPA of 2.92, and even more than the native GPAaverage of 2.62. Wolfpack transfers to the Mississippi Universityfor Women also broke the three-point mark with a 3.28 average,compared to the school’s transfer average and native average GPA of2.82.

Co-Lin transfers to Delta State posted a 2.9 average for fall of2007, as opposed to the school’s transfer average of 2.59 andnative average of 2.5; and those at Alcorn State Universityrecorded a 2.87 average, compared with the school’s 2.83 fortransfers, and 2.67 for four-year enrollees.

Jackson State University’s all-transfer average GPA came out at2.59 and native average at a 2.61, with Co-Lin transfers toppingboth at a 2.85 GPA.

Meanwhile, Ole Miss’ Co-Lin transfers logged a 2.7 GPA comparedto the school’s 2.71 native average and 2.6 transfer average.Wolfpack students going to the University of Southern Mississippiaveraged a 2.65 GPA, compared with the transfer average of 2.61 andnative average of 2.63.

Hulon said Co-Lin’s scores were not unexpected, as the collegehas a reputation both locally and among other community collegesfor being an academic stronghold.

“We typically are high on the list, and Co-Lin has been knownfor our academic excellence,” Hulon said. “I have worked at othercommunity colleges and I know myself that we have a strong facultyand strong educational programs. Our students are strong when theytransfer out of here, and it’s really not a surprise that we are atthis point.”