"Oh by the way, I would hope that the teachers all went to college, so in fact they do know people that went to college and could help them if they asked. "
Oh, by the way, applying to colleges has gotten a LOT more complicated and competitive in the last 10 years. And lets not forget that college costs are now SO MUCH more expensive college than they were 10-20 years ago.
For the poorer student whose family is making less than $ 45000 year- how are they supposed to know that they MIGHT be able to afford to go to college, unless they KNOW that the “sticker price” may be much lower for them? Or how are they supposed to know how to find out what it may cost ?? Or that if they take the PSAT in their JR year they MAY qualify for tens of thousands of dollars in NM scholarships? But that they then HAVE to take the SAT in order to be able to qualify?
There are PARENTS who come here not knowing what a NPC is, let alone that all colleges are required to have one on their website. And you assume 16-18 year olds , whose parents may or may not not have gone to college, and whose teachers got their degrees 20 years ago, will magically, while going to HS, and perhaps working after school to support their families, will easily be able to research colleges with all the free time on their hands and figure out the ins and outs of college applications, learn about NPC’s, financial aid, Common Data sets , etc, etc by doing Google searches???
right…
AsMYOS1634 said above- they DONT know what they dont know -until and when they get knowledgeable help.