Low-income and first-generation students often find it hard to obtain reliable information that can help them decide whether and where to attend college, according to a report released today by the National Center for Education Statistics.
One theme of the report is that first-generation students generally don’t begin to think seriously about college until their junior or senior years of high school, which might be several years too late. The report quotes a high-school guidance counselor as saying, “We need to return to the days when in grade school, the local firefighters, doctors, nurses, dentists, attorneys, policemen, and -women talked to children about their careers and what it takes to get there.”
Among other things, the report recommends that:
When communicating with low-income parents of prospective students, colleges should not assume that all families have access to the Internet. Other media, including print brochures and DVD’s, are still important.
Colleges should provide “financial-aid information that explains and clearly delineates the sticker price and out-of-pocket expenses, including tuition, books, transportation, room and board, and all fees.”
Colleges should learn to address the anxieties of prospective first-generation students, including the “fear of not being prepared to succeed in a competitive environment” and the “fear of being overwhelmed by the process and the choices.”
High-school guidance counselors should work together to create college-preparation newsletters, and they should develop “straightforward, self-guided computer-based programs or applications on the college-search process that students could review prior to seeing a counselor.”
The report, “Deciding on Postsecondary Education,” is based on focus-group interviews with 90 people in eight states, as well as a review of scholarly literature on students’ college decisions.
The report was produced by the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, a public-private research partnership that is housed within the Department of Education. —David Glenn
