This applied dissertation was designed to assess the effect of student participation in community college-based transfer advising programs on the resultant levels of effectiveness and economic efficiency in California's public higher education system. The outcomes of a representative transfer advising program at a California Community College campus were evaluated through the use of a nonequivalent control group research design measuring the differences in the resultant levels of transfer effectiveness, transfer course efficiency, and transfer cost efficiency between subjects who participated in the transfer advising program and subjects who did not. The results indicated a statistically significant 14.47% difference in transfer effectiveness (i.e., transfer rate) between transfer advising program participants and non-participants, X² (1, N = 115) = 4.9793, p = .0257. No significant difference was found in the overall levels of transfer course efficiency (t = 1.1966, p = .2343) or transfer cost efficiency (t = 1.1933, p = .2355) between the two groups. However, additional analysis revealed that program participants completed, on average, 3.51 more units of coursework fulfilling university requirements prior to transfer than program non-participants did (t = -2.6547, p = .0101). This resulted in an average taxpayer cost savings of $658.11 per program participant ( t = 2.4253, p = .0182) due to the completion of this coursework at the lower-cost CCC system. These results indicate that student participation in community college-based transfer advising programs has a positive effect on the resultant levels of effectiveness and economic efficiency in California's public higher education system. This study provides an example of how the expenditure of public funds in higher education can be tied to measurable, effective, and cost efficient outcomes. Systemic efficiencies such as those generated by transfer advising programs are necessary if California's higher education system is to increase graduation rates without a concurrent increase in cost. The expansion of such effective and cost efficient programs to greater numbers of students seems indicated by these results.