Running Head: STUDENT VULNERABILITIES: AN ANALYSIS OF COLLEGE CHOICE
Student Vulnerabilities: An Analysis Of College Choice And Access Gaps Faced By Low-Income Students
Literature Review
Merrill Farmer
Simon Fraser University
Abstract
Low income students face a number of financial, geographical, social, cultural and institutional vulnerabilities when choosing if and where they will attend postsecondary education. Higher achieving students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds apply, enroll, and complete postsecondary education at lower rates than students from higher income quartiles. Lower income students also apply to and attend less selective and competitive institutions in comparison to higher income students, a phenomenon known as undermatching. Undermatching is more prevalent among low income students whose parents did not attend postsecondary education, are from rural communities, who lack access to college counselling, and advice on the college application and financial aid process. This undermatching could result in further disadvantages to these lower income students such as, lower earnings from employment, longer completion times, lower graduation rates and weaker career and life aspirations. A series of policy and institutional interventions or reforms would better support low income students, and narrow the access gap that is occurring. A comparison between the United States and Canada proves some similarities, and
Going to a four-year university or college is not always the best choice for many students. This is due to what many of these colleges and universities offer their students that come from a lower socioeconomic background. This essay will aim to demonstrate the issues that students may face when they pursue a postsecondary education.
The first determinant of one’s fate is their family’s background. Almost none of the children from low-income families made it through college. With the expenses of college today, I’m actually not surprised by that statistic. Of the children from low-income families, only 4 percent had a college degree at age 28, compared to 45 percent of the children from higher-income backgrounds. "That 's a shocking tenfold
“Who Gets to Graduate’ by Paul Tough, publish May, 2015 in the New York Times discusses. The story of a young girl’s mindset on college. It begins with her starting in college and first failure on a test. It highlighted the doubts she had in her abilities. This opening introduces the article’s man discussion, which involves low income students who want to earn a four year degree but experience “troubles” along the way. It then discusses statistics that show dropout rates are highest with low-income students. The author included ability versus economics status.
Recently there has been a lot of debate about the importance of college education. Students are asking if it’s worth the debt to attend a four year university or community college. Some are thinking what are the benefits of a degree is in the workforce. With college tuition increasing and state fundings lowering, low income students are struggling to attain a higher education. College institutions should have a role to provide students higher education and equal opportunity to students to increase social mobility yet intergenerational reproduction of privilege has produced inequality in education.
Although financial barriers to accessing PSE are not particular to immigrants, some studies indicated that immigrants with low socio-economic status may overestimate the cost of PSE. A study on structural challenges that immigrants in Canada face in accessing PSE notes that while Canadians in general overestimate the cost of university tuition by approximately $1,000, those from low-income backgrounds overestimate it by approximately $3,000. In addition, low-income individuals underestimate the average annual income differences between high school and university graduates. It notes that, as part of the low-income population, refugees and low socio-economic immigrant are likely to perceive that the cost of higher education outweighs the benefits, and therefore be deterred by high tuition costs. In addition, low-income families tend to reside in neighborhoods that are troubled with gangs and violence. The study notes that teachers in the low-income neighborhoods also tend to be less qualified.
In the article, “Low-Income Students Seeking the Education They Need to Move Up,” Emily Yount writes about the way that poverty affects people entering higher education. In her story, a girl named Chelsea is a single mom trying to get her education, and the path is difficult for her. In this paper, I will discuss both my mother and Chelsea and show the ways that it is mainly the single moms that struggle the most in this society. Regardless if you’re rich or poor, your economic status always is important. A student’s economic status has a great impact and can affect her depending on the decisions she makes.
With the workforce becoming more competitive in today’s economy, the educational requirements have increased. By the year 2020, approximately 65% of all jobs in the United States will require a postsecondary education and/or further training proceeding high school education (“Recovery”). One thing that is not increasing is the rate of college enrollment of students from the Detroit Public Schools or college enrollment in general. There are many factors that contribute to this problem, just as there are also many solutions that may help assuage it. The main reason why students from Detroit Public Schools are not enrolling in postsecondary education institutions has to do with their financial situation.
According to Lewis and Zaidane, “The cost of college prevents many low-income Americans from even seeking a higher education. Forty-eight percent of adults aged eighteen to thirty-four without degrees told the wall street journal that they can’t afford to go to college” (588). This evidence shows that people are struggling to pay for college and some people are afraid of enrolling in to a college because of the cost. Nonetheless, Allan and Thompson discuss that most of the students who go to Harvard do not end up paying full price, and most students take advantages of taking grants and scholarships (581). However, their information is not true because they only talked about Harvard University, and they did not mention how many students get scholarships or take grants.
Through this recent recession the gap for financial aid has become increasingly large due to the fact that colleges are basing some of their applications by their financial situation. This in turn creates widening on lower to middle class families who cannot send their children to school because the cost are too great to bear with large amounts of financial aid. The wealthy students are not only being accepted to these pricy private universities but are being given grant and aid so that they can make it through. The poorer students are not even given the chance to attend those school not because of their brain but because of their lack of funding. In today’s society were the upper class has become very distant to the middle and
First of all, students prepare their senior year of highschool and figure out where they are interested in going to school. They apply to their top schools and some might apply to ones closer to home or some that tuition might be cheaper. Once they figure their plans out leading up to fall semester, “40 percent of low- income students who are accepted to college in the spring will never make it to the first day of class in the fall. They’re stymied by tuition sticker shock.” ( Meredith Kolodner, par 2) Not all students have the
Colleges are noticing a drop in students’ interest in a higher education, because it forces them to fall into poverty. Obtaining a higher education is a dream of many working class citizens, but the price to go to a choice college is not available economically. The majority of students use some type of student loan, they have become the norm for attending college (Johnston, Roten 24). College is becoming unaffordable to many lower class students. With tuition prices this high, students are backing out of school and looking for jobs that only require a high school diploma. Student loans should help people, but it is only hurting them because they feel like they can never repay it. Especially since student debt continues to rise. “Student loan debt rose by 328 percent from $241 million in 2003 to $1.08 trillion in 2013, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York” (Johnston, Roten 25).
At a time when, employers say that almost every new job in the U.S. will require workers to have more than a high-school education, the chance that students at the bottom of the economic ladder can afford to finish college has taken a turn for the worse. The number of students from all income levels and racial and ethnic backgrounds pursuing post- secondary education continues to grow. But to stay in school, low-income students are taking loans, using high- interest credit cards to pay tuition, working more hours, and opting for two-year schools. Low-income students are choosing two-year colleges for financial reasons even though studies show more of them are academically qualified for four-year schools due to efforts by school districts to push them into tougher, college-prep course. This tuition increase makes part- time students “… face costs they cannot afford while confronting a federal system of financial aid that both is “confusing” and “spends too little on those who need help the most” (Zemsky 3). For full time students this raise also puts a damper in their college fund but it could no amount to the cost of a part- time student who cannot afford their education as a result of their uncontrollable financial situations.
Many students entering college may discover that they are not prepared for college curriculum courses. These students enter college courses facing a major issue. They find that high school has not adequately prepared them for the difficulty of college level courses. These students lacked the sufficient basis in being well equipped for advanced careers and college entry. These students have suffered a great inequality prevalent throughout high schools since several high schools do not receive equivalent aid. The unequal funding in high schools prevents students from attaining the same education that other students in different areas may receive. Unequal school funding in secondary schools
College tuition has skyrocketed over the past decades making the pathway to college less accessible to low-income families. According to the
Finally, the most difficult challenge students face in college is a financial hardship. Many students come from various walks of life and sometimes determining one’s financial capability to offset college costs during the early stages of can be problematic. Some students come from well to do families who have a tremendous capacity to pay full tuition without external assistance. These particular students do not require financial aid or scholarships, as they can meet the institution’s financial requirement regardless of what level in college they may fall under as the source of wealth is derived from the family or families. Other students, however, come from impoverished families whom solely depend on financial aid and work full time or part time