This study examined the relative intellectual impacts of two- and four-year college educational programs by focusing on changes in reading comprehension, mathematics, and critical thinking skills in 204 freshmen students who attended either a public two-year community college near a large metropolitan area or a public four-year, urban research university. Preliminary data collection included a precollege survey on student demographic characteristics and background data, and the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency, developed to assess selected general skills typically obtained by students in the first 2 years of college. A follow-up test was administered at the end of the freshman year. With controls made for precollege cognitive skills, age, work, place of residence and enrollment status, two-year college students did as well as their four-year counterparts in terms of freshman year gains in the variables under study. Contains 18 references. (GLR)