More Students Can Gain Access To College Education

The amount of time and effort students and parents put into planning, and how early they get started, are important factors in achieving access to postsecondary acim. Schools play a key role in making planning resources, information and opportunities available and accessible. Educators believe that students should start post-high school planning in ninth grade or even earlier, but relatively few students report starting earlier than 10th grade.

Young adults who did not continue their education after high school were more likely than others to say they wished they had started planning earlier, and were also more likely to report that they would do something different if they could start over again. Most reported that they would go to college. Among the most helpful approaches that schools take in preparing students for postsecondary education, educators list:

Educators working in schools that separate the responsibility for postsecondary education planning from other tasks within the guidance office gave more positive assessments of their schools’ ability to provide post-high school planning assistance for students of all ability levels. From a list of planning activities, students and young adults rate guidance counselor meetings as the most helpful (although they rate parents and teachers as more helpful with planning overall). Parents rate college campus visits, closely followed by meetings with guidance counselors, as the most helpful activity. Meeting with their child’s guidance counselor is the only planning activity that parents of General/Voc Prep students are as likely as other parents to have done. While virtually all current students report having regularly scheduled meetings with guidance counselors, only 74% report having had a serious discussion with a guidance counselor or teacher about their plans for the future. Only two-thirds of the young adults surveyed reported that their high school offered regularly scheduled guidance counselor meetings.

Discussions about access to higher education often focus on financial considerations, and many of those surveyed expressed concern about college affordability and financial aid. Nearly three-quarters of parents surveyed say they are discouraged by the rising costs of college, but very few (only 7%) say their child won’t be able to attend because of costs. Roughly one-third of students and parents say that it is likely that money will be the determining factor in whether or not they (or their children) go to college. About one half of students and fully 68% of parents say that money will determine which college they (or their children) choose. Three in ten young adults report that money was a very significant factor in determining what they did directly after high school, regardless of where in they live. Students who went on to a two-year college, technical or trade school were roughly twice as likely as those who went to four-year college to say that money was a very significant factor. Most students (78%) express a willingness to take on loans in order to pay for college. While most parents (72%) support the idea of their children incurring debt to finance college, fewer (59%) are willing themselves to take on education loans for their children. Although most students and parents report that they will need significant financial aid to pay for college, some do not believe that they will qualify for scholarships or grants to help pay for college. Parents who did not go to college and parents of General/Voc Prep track students are more likely than others to believe that saving for their child’s college education would jeopardize the family’s eligibility for financial aid.

Students who are proactive in college planning and those who have parents who are actively involved are at a distinct advantage in terms of fulfilling their postsecondary education goals. Many students and parents, however, appear to be approaching the post-high school planning process passively, waiting for schools or others to prompt their planning efforts and for information to come to them. Another key implication of these findings is that first-generation college families are in need of particular attention and resources. Students without a parent or sibling who has gone to college face great challenges in forming college aspirations and in navigating the college planning process. Every first-generation student who successfully moves on to college represents a family no longer facing this barrier in the future, so resources invested in this area are likely to reap great rewards. Some students appear to have experiences in high school that are very encouraging and supportive of their postsecondary education goals. These experiences combine a high level of proactive involvement in both school and planning by the students themselves and their parents with effective programs and resources provided by the school.