Community colleges have always been good stepping stones to four-year colleges. But despite a number of programs that promise admission to four-year schools upon completion of a two-year associate program, many transfer students fail to meet the standards for a baccalaureate degree. A National Center for Education Statistics report found that of first-time, public two-year college students in 2003-04 who transferred to a four-year college, only 29 percent attained a bachelor's degree. As pressure mounts to boost the nation's college completion rate, community colleges must increase the number of students who complete two-year associate programs en route to a four-year degree. Though several potential roadblocks--a lack of communication between institutions, cost, and a long-standing bureaucratic morass, to name a few--continue to make transfer difficult, many colleges are addressing these challenges through stronger counseling services, smoother credit-transfer agreements, and clearer pathways to programs of study.