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"For Low Income Students the Suburbs Are No Sure Path to College"
TomSrOfBoston
15139 replies1023 threads Senior Member
This article looks at the college outcomes of low income students graduating from high schools in affluent sububs. It raises many good points but the prime example they chose to look at was a mistake. She was from a low income family in Massachusetts. She chose to attend Penn State and was forced to drop out during her sophomore year for financial reasons.
UMass Amherst would have likely been a better and more affordable option and not very different academically.
As CCer's know Penn State is the most expensive sticker price public university in the country and they are known for very limited financial aid, even for in-state students. If her high school guidance counselor had warned her away from attending her dream school (Penn State) that would have led to problems for the GC.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/11/16/for-poor-students-suburbs-are-sure-path-college/T1qo4bg3CaQ9L5nGmQIHIO/story.html
37 replies From the moment she arrived at Pennsylvania State University in 2010, Atocha struggled to pay her bills, even with the help of financial aid and loans. At first, Atocha forged friendships with classmates in order to borrow textbooks. By her second semester, she chose her classes more strategically — based on whether she could eke out money for the book.
UMass Amherst would have likely been a better and more affordable option and not very different academically.
As CCer's know Penn State is the most expensive sticker price public university in the country and they are known for very limited financial aid, even for in-state students. If her high school guidance counselor had warned her away from attending her dream school (Penn State) that would have led to problems for the GC.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/11/16/for-poor-students-suburbs-are-sure-path-college/T1qo4bg3CaQ9L5nGmQIHIO/story.html
Replies to: "For Low Income Students the Suburbs Are No Sure Path to College"
It's a matter of COMMON SENSE, if you can't afford it, don't attend.
Students and parents alike need to have a reality check on college. Living away is not an entitlement, its a privilege. Select an affordable college, even if it means living at home and commuting.
Why would the counselor telling a student to "check the net price calculators of the colleges on your application list before applying" and that "it is a bad idea to attend a college that requires cosigned or parent loans" lead to problems for the counselor?
Community college is a great way to start for many of our kids, and in our state you get preferential registration and other perks when you continue at UMass.
The majority of college students are actually NOT traditional students so the 6 year mark leaves out a lot of (eventual) success. Many college students are working or have kids and take quite a few years to finish.
The pressure to go to college as the only measure of "success" is so misguided. It is apparently politicially or even legally incorrect to guide students on other paths.
Finally, the student described in the article, who left Penn State, is a success story but it isn't presented that way. She has a good job at Tufts after working for awhile as an opthalmological technician. Ending the article with the idea that she could have been an MD is just more of the same stuff at the lunch table. Isn't it a success to have a good stable job that could help support you and/or your family?
And this is a surprise?
She also could've attended UMass Boston and commuted if she lived close enough to the T. But then, let's not confuse journalists with the facts (of life 'when 'free college for all' sounds more sexy).
HPY schools can be the very best deals for kids needing and qualifying for financial aid, and yet there have been many aspersions cast the GCs tend to steer kids AWAY from those schools I certainly hope that cost isn’t in that picture as the best financial aid packages often come from expensive private schools.
Sure, it should be part of the “apply to the high reach and pray” category - but without a well thought out plan for the statistical probability of a denial (even for the most competitive applicants) is malpractice imho.
Also, perhaps some lunch tables and at some schools they sneer at a student discussing attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst. That’s neither probable nor actually the case in the vast majority of schools. Perhaps parents. Not so much the students. It’s also so misplaced and uninformed it’s nearly a sickening level of elitism. But hey drop out of the expensive oos and avoid the sneers. Good trade off. Good lord.
I would imagine that a GC in a public school, even one in an affluent suburb, has even more constraints.
It's tough because this is a critical issue while also being one that needs to be handled with great sensitivity. As mentioned by @TomSrOfBoston , there is peer pressure as it is. Having your GC suggest CC because you "seem poor" could come across as something far different than a good intention to get a kid to an affordable school (especially when the most selective schools have great FA.)
Agree with PB. Moreover, a good GC knows with near certainty that HYP only accepts the xx students per class and if low income student is xx minus 10, the odds have just dropped to near zero. For example, our HS Val has been accepted to Harvard most of the last 10 years. But ONLY the Val has gotten into H; all others from our HS are just wasting their app fees (unless they like playing the Lotto).
Couldn't counselors avoid some of these issues by telling every junior and early senior to talk to parents about affordability and run net price calculators before making the application list?
So the counselors end up defaulting to what they see as the norm in their community. I certainly see this is our LPS.
We used a mediocre high school system in a working class town and didn't have that problem. However, our GC steered my kids away from Ivies because noone had ever gone to one and the GC thought they would be too expensive. We didn't listen actually. Our goal was to reduce costs and Ivies were a good strategy actually.
My family has experienced a wide range of schools, from community college to Ivies. My favorite classes personally were UMass Boston, a very diverse environment with small humanities classes and teachers who care.
What people believe or want to believe is that a high school student's academic achievement is the primary factor in determining what college s/he will attend. But the actual primary factor is the student's parental financial circumstances and choices.
The first time you look at a college website and see the cost of attendance, if that doesn’t tell you it’s time to do some serious research I’m not sure what will.
It’s what parents do, what kids like, and that’s fine. But no sympathy about it costing too much from me.
Concur, but I'll bet that some journalist (with a pov) will still write a woe-is-me and loans-are-bad story on someone just like her.