College application process intimidates some students
WASHINGTON — Sometimes, all it takes is a $7 burrito gift card to get high school seniors to submit their college applications early.
“You always have some students who say, ‘I don’t want to go to college,’ but they don’t realize (that) whatever it is in life, they need to go to college for it,” said Martin Copeland, adviser at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the District of Columbia.
President Barack Obama’s goal is that by 2020, America will again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. To reach it, more low-income and first-generation students must earn a degree.
Even as a larger percentage of students from every income go to college compared with in the late 1980s, some don’t even consider it. Cost is a factor, as is a lack of understanding about scholarships and loans.
Many low-income students would be the first in their family to go to college. If their parents haven’t gone through the application process, there may be no one at home to help guide them.
Some students think that “because of where we come from ... we aren’t going to get in,” said Scheryl Duarte, 17, a Theodore Roosevelt student who wants to become a nurse. She had planned to join the military and hadn’t even considered college until a representative from Delaware State University spoke to her class.
Much attention has been given to the issue of student loan debt and students failing to graduate from college, but highereducation leaders say college is still a good investment for individuals and the economy. Re- search has shown people who have a degree are more likely to have a job and make more in lifetime earnings.
Yet, nationally, about half of high school graduates from families making below $18,300 enrolled in college in 2012 compared with about 80 percent of those whose families earned above $90,500, according to the College Board.
In Washington, where Duarte lives, only 30 percent of high school graduates go to college — a lower percentage than the number who drop out of high school, despite the city having the highest level of college attainment in the nation, according to the College Board.
Nearly all the students at Roosevelt qualify for free or reduced lunches.
To help create a college-going culture, a bulletin board near the school’s front doors features the names of seniors and the colleges they were accepted to.
As part of the American Council on Education’s American College Application Campaign, Chipotle gift cards were being handed out at Roosevelt. Now in 39 states, the campaign works with states, districts and schools to focus one week a year on activities to help students with the application process.
The mission is twofold: assist students as they fill out applications during the school day, and help spread enthusiasm about college. The program has enlisted retired teachers, business leaders, admissions counselors and others.