Dual enrollment is one of the earliest connections a college has with a future student. Students take college courses while still in high school, on campus or off. Yet the weeks between that first connection and the first day of a college term, including the summer after graduation, are where colleges often lose them.
Much of the national conversation about access has focused on cost. Affordability is necessary to start, but it is not sufficient to stay. We believe students persist when they can see where their education leads, and that this is built at specific moments: in dual enrollment, on campus and off; in the weeks between first interest and enrollment; and in the opening days of the term.
Most colleges measure who applies and who enrolls. Very few measure what happens in between. The First Mile Study looks at that gap.
The First Mile Study
What are colleges doing, from a dual enrollment student’s first point of interest through census date, to help that student see the career ahead and want it?
RESEARCH STUDY
Swim Digital Group is leading a national research study with up to 12 community and technical colleges. Together, Research Partners will build the field’s first shared benchmark of the first mile for dual enrollment students, from first interest through the census date of their first term.
Co-funded by Swim Digital Group through a $30,000 Research Partner Grant to each participating college.
Background
The Research Question
Study Design
The study uses mystery-shopper testing across multiple student profiles, a review of each college's first mile from first point of interest through census date, and benchmarking across the full cohort, including a first-term career connection measure. Research Partners meet in three convenings.
METHOD
RESEARCH TEAM
[Name, title], Swim Digital Group
DATA
[Name, title], Swim Digital Group
PUBLICATION
Findings will be published in a national white paper in [season/year].
Timeline
Apply
Applications are open to community and technical colleges nationwide.
We encourage enrollment, student services, and workforce leaders to apply together.
Denise Tolitsky
dtolitsky@swimdigitalgroup.com
Questions?
Applications open
January 15, 2027
Cohort selection
Research begins
Research concludes
Findings published
"As a field, we have done a great deal to help students afford college, and that work matters. But paying for college does not tell a student why they are there. We lose dual enrollment students at alarming rates, and many never resurface at another college. They just stop. Why? We need to understand what happens inside colleges and high schools before, during, and after a student’s first term, across enrollment, student services, and the path to work. We also need to know whether the students who belong in dual enrollment ever learn it is an option. The career market is competitive, and our students need every advantage we can give them. That is what this study is for.
Trimeka Benjamin
President & CEO, Swim Digital Group
Access
How do students who belong in dual enrollment learn it is an option, and who is never reached?
Where, and from whom, do dual enrollment students encounter the connection between coursework and career, on campus and off?
From a student’s first interest in dual enrollment through the close of the first college term, what do colleges do to make the career ahead visible and worth pursuing?
Experience
Transition
Which institutional practices between high school graduation and the first term keep these students enrolled, and which lose them?
Who
Community and technical colleges nationwide. Enrollment, student services, and workforce leaders are encouraged to apply together.
Cohort
Up to 12 Research Partner colleges
Window
From first interest through the close of the first college term
The study examines three points where that answer is decided:
Participation
Swim will select no more than 12 community and technical colleges for the inaugural cohort, balanced across college size, region, and student population.
Each Partner Receives:
- An assessment of its own first mile for dual enrollment students
- A private briefing for its president in May on its own fall 2026 dual enrollment results
- An institutional action brief
- Participation in two research convenings with peer institutions, one at the start of the study and one at the close
- Recognition in the national white paper, or anonymous participation if preferred
Applications open
January 15, 2027
Cohort selection
Research begins
Research concludes
Findings published
Explore the First Mile
Interested in becoming a First Mile Research Partner? Join us for an upcoming information session to learn more about the study, explore participation requirements, and discover how your institution can contribute to a deeper understanding of the student experience.
November 19, 2026
January 7, 2027
Investment
Swim is funding this study because the field has no shared benchmark for the first mile, and building one depends on colleges willing to contribute their data. Each Research Partner’s investment is $30,000. Swim covers the remaining half of the $60,000 participation cost through a Research Partner Grant, awarded in recognition of the data and time each college contributes.
Implementation Cohort
Research Colleges will also invited to join an implementation cohort in Fall 2027 to put the study’s findings into practice.