This descriptive, cross-sectional, mixed methods study focused on an anonymous state-wide nonprofit organization in a mid-Atlantic state and the perspectives and insights of the mentors who work directly with first-generation immigrant high school students as they assist their mentees through the college and scholarship application process. The…

Mexican Americans have been native to the United States for centuries, but their educational attainment numbers reflect an achievement gap. This has led to increased poverty levels, low social capital, and low quality of benefits. One way to increase social mobility for a racial group is by increasing the number of bachelor's degree holders.…

Although a college degree is an increasingly important gateway to economic advancement in the United States, high school students with disabilities enroll in postsecondary education at lower rates than nondisabled students. The disparities in college access for these students indicate that there may be differences in how they are navigating the…

The purpose of this mixed methods action research study was to implement digital outreach strategies, which would enhance students' motivation to complete financial aid requirements and scale the departments' more time-consuming counseling efforts. Using self-determination theory as the primary framework, I implemented the use of a series of…

Despite the many benefits of Career and Technical Education programs in high schools, these programs are in a pattern of decline in the United States. There is a gap in the literature regarding secondary administrators' perceptions of CTE programs in their schools, which is important due to the influence administrators have over programs offered,…

This paper explores the research question and literature pertaining to school counselors and their roles and responsibilities and how they can have an effect on Latino/a students and their A-G college course requirement completion rates. Latinos/as students are the lowest academic achieving students in the nation among their peers and the lowest…

Nearly 27% of free and reduced-priced meal (FARM) high school students in an eastern state graduated in 2016-2017. Of these students, about 50% enrolled in college within one year after high school graduation. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental correlational design study was to explore a possible reason for low college enrollment for…

Two-year state and community colleges provide convenient and affordable educational opportunities with open admissions policies, which make them "value-added institutions that are uniquely different than traditional colleges and universities" (Grubbs, 2020, p. 205). Students across the nation enroll in 2-year colleges to pursue their…

This study explores whether there is a heterogeneous effect of high school college counselors on college application and enrollment. Most research on the impact of counselors has focused on the effect of traditional school counselors and not on high school college counselors, individuals whose primary responsibility is to assist students with…

Experts underscore many advantages of higher education as a vehicle for economic mobility, yet it continually fails to be genuinely accessible through its flaws in equity and affordability. Gaining access to higher education often begins with filing a national financial aid form known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, used…

According to the National College Attainment Network (NCAN, 2023), each year, thousands of high school graduates leave billions of dollars in federal student aid unclaimed because they do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). To holistically investigate this phenomenon, this dissertation accomplished three goals. The…

Chapter 1 studies how the interaction of student information with constraints dictated by market design determines higher education choices and outcomes. I study strategic application incentives in imperfect implementations of centralized assignment mechanisms in higher education. I ask whether, in markets with both a central match for public…

While Black students have experienced significant growth in college enrollment since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Higher Education Act of 1965, they are still less likely than their white counterparts to attend and graduate from a post-secondary institution (Ryan & Bauman, 2016). There have been previous studies on college…

Pre-college access programs operating in high schools commonly focus on assisting underserved and historically excluded populations of students in preparing for, applying to, and enrolling in postsecondary education. Through two analyses, this study examines the efficacy of two types of access programs in facilitating postsecondary enrollment and…

The purpose of this applied research study was to create a series of informational workshops that would educate Latinx high school students who were academically competitive and from low socioeconomic backgrounds on the post-secondary options they were qualified to pursue. This applied research study further sought to teach Latinx high school…