Past work and college-access programs often treat college knowledge as discrete pieces of information and focus on the amount of available college information. I use ethnographic and multiwave interview data to compare college-aspiring working- and middle-class black 9th and 11th graders across almost two years in high school along with their…

To evaluate how Advanced Placement courses affect college-going, we randomly assigned the offer of enrollment into an AP science course to over 1,800 students in 23 schools that had not previously offered the course. We find no substantial AP course effects on students' plans to enroll in college or on their college entrance exam scores. Yet AP…

Recent studies have found a net Black advantage in educational attainment. This pattern indicates that after controlling for socioeconomic and academic characteristics, Black students are more likely to continue education than are their White counterparts. Using an educational careers approach, this study examines selection and student…

The study explored reasons why Black, Hispanic, and Biracial, first generation high school seniors who wish to attend college, do not apply. The literature indicated that these populations have consistently lower rates of college enrollment and educational attainment than Whites and Asians (Ashburn, 2008). Enrollment challenges included…

The girls of girls' schools, the author believes, are a kind of Platonic Form of American girl, an ideal to which most of the rest of society, of the country's meritocratic system, aspires for their daughters, a reflection of one's deepest values. She believes girls all over the country, in all high schools, want The Dream. They want to achieve…

Students in the United States have higher educational aspirations than ever before. One barrier for Latino high school students are the myths, misconceptions, and absence of accurate information about what it takes to get to college. This issue is particularly critical for students who are the first in their families who have the opportunity to go…

Melissa Roderick, Jenny Nagaoka, and Vanessa Coca focus on the importance of improving college access and readiness for low-income and minority students in urban high schools. They stress the aspirations-attainment gap: although the college aspirations of all U.S. high school students, regardless of race, ethnicity, and family income, have…

Argues that the competitive admissions system forces students to constrain their natural impulse toward commitment. Describes the use of scattergrams to provide students with more accurate information about selectivity. (JAC)

This handbook is a year-by-year planning guide to college preparatory activities for high school students and it begins with the 9th grade. These topics are included: (1) introduction to planning and the decision-making process; (2) educational and occupational alternatives; (3) considerations in choosing a college; (4) types of academic…

Describes behaviors typical of high aspiration high school students denied admission to prestigious colleges. Students feel inadequate, parents may be devastated, and students and families may plot to influence the admission office. Counselors play a vital role in assisting student and family with an objective assessment of remaining alternatives.…

This article asserts low graduation rates, a lack of information for those who do graduate, and a perceived hostile environment on some campuses cut the college matriculation rates of African American students, making them an endangered species on some campuses. It discusses the root causes and effects of the low population of African American…

This paper addresses myths about college students with learning disabilities (LD) which may give false hope to students very unlikely to succeed in college but more often place limitations on students who could succeed with some support services, based on the experience of Project Achieve at Southern Illinois University. The "myths"…

This digest provides students, parents, and educators with guidelines to help gifted students in the college planning process. As learning about oneself and career options is essential to college planning, a 6-year program of guidance activities is outlined for grades 7-12. Learning about colleges is discussed in terms of two steps, the first…

Employing two complementary data sets--the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of l972, and the Study of Academic Prediction and Growth, we question the conventional interpretation of educational plans as motives and thereby as determinants of educational attainment. (Author/GDC)

The purpose of this ongoing project is to provide financial aid administrators with a description of the College Investment Decision Study, while placing it in perspective in relation to the objectives of other recent microeconomic surveys: Project Talent, National Longitudinal Study, Thorndike-NBER Panel, PSAT Study, SCOPE Study, and Growth…