To raise the number of middle and high school students that go on to college, the key is to use peer-to-peer counseling. That was the message from a group of experts who testified before the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance yesterday. The 11-person committee, established by Congress in 1986, has the responsibility to provide information on federal, state, and institutional student assistance programs and make recommendations on current postsecondary assistance program to increase college participation, primarily for low income students.
During an all-day session titled "Improving College Access and Persistence" yesterday, one issue resonated loud and clear: ensuring access to low-income students is a bigger job than high school guidance counselors or financial aid administrators can do alone.
"In Virginia there is about one guidance counselor for every 369 high school students," said Nicole Hurd, director of the National College Advising Corps. According to the panel of experts, Virginia's numbers are comparative to most other states, where high school guidance counselors find themselves overloaded and heavily outnumbered when it comes to getting students information about financial resources to attend college.
"College Guide" Program
In an experimental program, Hurd, in partnership with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, has begun a "College Guide" program where college juniors, seniors, or recent graduates adopt a local high school in an effort to "guide" students to college resources and information. Hurd feels that high school students relate better to these college students because of their relative young age and because they recently went through the college admissions and financial aid processes themselves.
The Guide program is showing promise. Roger Nozaki, Director of the Swearer Center at Brown University, illustrated how the program is working in his state. Rhode Island, like many states, has an "education equity issue," according to Nozaki who used several statistics to underscore the lack of college participation among low-income families.
Nozaki began hiring college guides to reach out to local, rural high schools where 62 percent of students are categorized as coming from low-income families. By using 8-12 college guides, some high schools began seeing dramatic increases in the numbers of students applying for college. In one rural high school 63 out of 69 students in one senior class applied for college, a much higher rate than other high schools without college guides.
A Win-Win Program
The college guides also gain valuable experience through their mentoring and outreach efforts. "Being in the trenches give is both rewarding and unique," said College Guide Erva Cockfield, who works in a rural high school outside of her home college, the University of Virginia.
In contrast to her fellow panelists, Cockfield stayed away from statistics and instead related an anecdotal experience that struck a chord with the Advisory Committee. Cockfield recalled her experience in helping a young man through the college admissions and financial aid process. The real pay-off came from seeing the young man again after one year of college.
"He had matured and he had changed," said Cockfield. "And to know that I had something to do with that...," she said, trailing off as she fought back tear.
Cockfield said that the greatest contribution that a college guide can make is to fill-in, as needed, for overworked guidance counselors. In the high school where she works there are three guidance counselors for 1,100 students. Cockfield believes that it would be impossible for those guidance counselors to handle of the students' college going needs, especially the needs of target populations who require special attention.
Collaboration Access Programs Can Have a Big Effect
Marcia Weston, NASFAA's director of College Goal Sunday (CGS) operations told committee members how one CGS event, geared towards helping students and parents fill out the FAFSA, can make a big impact. Weston pointed out that nearly 75 percent of all CGS participants were from a targeted population category: low-income, first-generation, or minority students.
Recent surveys conducted through the CGS program found that almost all middle school students believe that they will go to college, but all of them believe that finances will be their biggest obstacle. When asked how much they thought college tuition costs, the middle school students' answers ranged form one dollar to $12 million, "which proves there's education work to be done," said Weston with a laugh.
The CGS program wouldn't be possible without collaborations with several other organizations such as TRIO, GEAR UP, state guaranty agencies, and other college access programs, said Weston. Weston stressed that despite recent events in the financial aid community that appear to be creating barriers between historically successful partners, successful college outreach efforts will continue to demand total cooperation between higher education groups.
Keeping It Simple
Several other presenters focused on keeping the financial aid process as simple as possible. While many believe that the FAFSA needs to be simplified, that is not necessarily the case, said Bart Astor, Washington office director of the National Association of State and Student Grant and Aid Programs.
In Astor's experience, many students and families suffer from "form anxiety," in that they have more fear of filling out the FAFSA than they have problems in actually filling it out.
"Once they get started they can usually get through it without much difficulty," said Astor. In fact, many low-income students have little trouble filling out the FAFSA because of their limited incomes and few assets, which allow them to skip many questions. If students can be directed or helped in getting started in filling out the FAFSA, they can usually finish it on their own, he said.
"It's not the FAFSA that we should be focused on," he stated. "It's the entire financial aid process that needs to be simplified."
Astor asked the committee to remain focused on keeping the financial aid process as simple as possible and stated that as it stands now, too many students are getting lost in a process that often leaves students bewildered and confused about how to pay for college.
Other Sessions of the Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee also held sessions with panels of experts on a recent college textbook affordability study and efforts to simplify the student aid process. Summaries of those sessions and other media coverage of the meeting have been included below.
By Justin Draeger
NASFAA Assistant Director for Communications
Posted 06/06/07 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web Site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.
