The growth of multi-institutional attendance and discontinuous enrollment poses a challenge to linear approaches to college retention and subsequent graduation rates. Linear methodologies have a level of failure built in and cannot fully measure community college institutional effectiveness. This article analyzes student entry and subsequent multiple institution enrollment for transfer and new students in a four-year system. Implications of these findings for access and success and as well as for institutional/system and state and national education policy are discussed. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)