Students with strong qualifications took themselves out of four-year college planning, choosing early two-year enrollment as a low-risk solution when searches felt overwhelming and costly¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2008 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2013: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Jennie, an IB student with a 3.84 weighted GPA and a 21 on the ACT, experienced sticker shock and anxiety about choosing the wrong college, and decided early in winter of senior year to start at a community college. → Melissa Roderick 2008

Evidence¶

Melissa Roderick 2008¶

Melissa Roderick, Jenny Nagaoka, Vanessa Coca, Eliza Moeller, with Karen Roddie, Jamiliyah Gilliam, and Desmond Patton. (2008). From High School to the Future: Potholes on the Road to College (Case Studies). Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/high-school-future-potholes-road-college

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Qualitative case study of Jennie, who never spoke one-on-one with a teacher or counselor about college plans, ruled out DePaul when her aid package included $10,000 in loans, and enrolled at Moraine Valley Community College, saying "I'm saving them money."

"The sudden decision to go to a two-year school was a fairly com- mon phenomenon, especially for students at Silverstein, even for students with strong college qualifications like Jennie's"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Low ACT scores and confusion about financial aid led a hardworking, college-aspiring student to decide not to attend college at all — related
• Even students with stellar qualifications and strong plans can fail to enroll after career uncertainty, incomplete financial aid paperwork, and no extended adult conversation about college combine to make choice feel too risky — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Despite strong academic qualifications, IB DP students often have limited access to the social capital needed to navigate college course selection and access faculty support — related
• Nearly two-thirds of graduates from academically advanced programs graduate with access to a selective or very selective four-year college — related
• One-fifth of students in academically advanced programs do not apply to any four-year college — related
• Even highly qualified students need strong parental support combined with structured school support to conduct an effective college search and enroll in a matched college — related
• Even the top students in a school can go almost unnoticed by adults in college planning, missing steering to selective colleges and relying on luck to find a good fit — related
• IB DP students report feeling prepared to succeed and excel in college coursework, crediting the IB DP with teaching the specific skills and behaviors college demands — related
• An abundance of choices can worsen education decisions, contributing to college dropout when combined with a lack of structure — related
• Becoming too focused on a single college option left a highly qualified student with no fallback when that option fell through, and she did not enroll in college — related
• Most interviewed CPS seniors describe senior year as unchallenging and easier than previous years — related
• Information barriers disadvantage low-income students in the college transition: bright low-income students miss selective colleges, and mailed information packages raise application and enrollment — related