Most high school students and their parents are unaware of the actual cost of college, according to a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics. And when they do hazard a guess as to how much it will take to enroll, they often overestimate the price of higher education.
“There may be serious consequences to being uninformed and unsure about college costs and financial aid,” according to the report. “For example, uncertainty about college costs and the availability of financial aid has been associated with underenrollment among low-income and minority students.”
The study looked at students’ perceptions of tuition and fees at a public, four-year college in their state. The findings suggest teens need earlier and better information related to college costs.
All students have questions about the college admission process.
But those who identify as LGBTQ often grapple with a unique set of considerations when researching schools and submitting their applications. In addition to finding a college that supports their academic goals, they are searching for a campus community that will embrace their identity.
Looking for resources to help students with their search? In an article published this week by Teen Vogue, college admission professionals answered some of the most pressing questions asked by LGBTQ students.
Students now have another avenue to file for federal aid. Thanks to a new mobile app, they can use their smartphones to fill out the FAFSA.
Department of Education officials and college access workers hope the new platform — called myStudentAid — will make it easier for more students to access money for college.
A recent column published in The New York Times offered some timely advice for parents who just can’t help tinkering with their child’s college essay.
In a word? Don’t.
“The paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don’t know what a college essay is really about,” wrote JM Farkas, a college essay consultant. “Unlike the other parts of an application, where high grade point averages and SAT scores reign supreme, the essay is less about being impressive than it is about being authentic.”
Nearly 70 percent of college students work while enrolled in school, but the types of jobs they hold and the hours they work vary based on their socioeconomic status, according to a recent report from Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce (CEW).
“When they choose to work…higher-income students have access to the best jobs and work experience, such as internships and assistantships,” according to a CEW press release. “Low-income students are more likely than higher-income students to work in food service, sales, and administrative support jobs while enrolled. Work experience in these jobs provides basic life skills like conscientiousness and teamwork, but does not provide the deeper technical and general skills that foreshadow good career entry-level jobs.”
And in many cases, the demands of these positions exacerbate the challenges students face in the classroom.
NACAC’s national conference offers members a chance to learn and grow. It also signals the beginning of a new year for the association’s Board of Directors.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof believes in the power of education.
From early childhood through adulthood, few other institutions hold the power to transform lives so completely. Yet as the gap between the haves and have-nots grows wider in America, more and more families struggle to tap into those benefits, Kristof told attendees Friday during the keynote address at NACAC’s 74th National Conference in Salt Lake City.
“Colleges are a great public good, and yet too often, that public good is largely reserved for kids of the modern educational aristocracy,” Kristoff told the roughly 6,000 attendees at this year’s annual gathering of college admission professionals. “…At 25 institutions around the country, including five Ivy League institutions, more kids come from families in the top 1 percent than from the bottom 60 percent — that is a failure of that public good. We can do better.”
The statistics are stark when it comes to college access and success for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
On some reservations, the college-going rate for high school grads is as low as 18 percent, according to data from the American Indian College Fund. And US Census Bureau data shows that only 14 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives hold college degrees.
Yet when given support and curriculum that affirms their culture, Native students excel, Carrie Billy, president and CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), told attendees Thursday at NACAC’s 74th National Conference in Salt Lake City.
“A lot of our students don’t know who they are,” she said. “They’ve been through the K-12 system — a lot of them on reservations — and still haven’t learned their culture and their identity.”
