EDUCATION - First-Generation College Applicants

"Individual coaching demystifies college for first-generation applicants" PBS NewsHour 1/12/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Final deadlines for college applications are looming this week, and students who are first in their families to attend college are far less likely to have help navigating the application system.  The College Advising Corps aims to change that by recruiting college graduates to advise first-generation applicants.  Hari Sreenivasan visits two New York City high schools to see the Corps in action.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Final deadlines for college applications are looming this week, and students who are the first in their family to apply to college are the least likely to have had help navigating the complex process.

A group called the College Advising Corps is trying to turn that disparity around.  It partners with high schools and universities to recruit and pay recent college grads to advise lower-income, first-generation students on getting into college.

Hari Sreenivasan visited two New York City high schools working with the corps.

VICTORIA DEL TORO, College Advising Corps:  You bought two movie tickets.  Your friend cancels.

What would you do?

STUDENT:  I would call my other friend.

VICTORIA DEL TORO:  You would call somebody else.  What happens if that person doesn’t respond?

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Many students at Manhattan Academy for Arts and Language all still learning English.  Most of them are recent immigrants.  The idea of applying and going to college can feel totally foreign.  That’s where Victoria Del Toro comes in.

VICTORIA DEL TORO:  Are you going to lose out on that money?

STUDENTS:  No.

VICTORIA DEL TORO:  You call somebody else.  So, colleges work the same way.  So, when they e-mail you, they track who responds to what.  And they want to know that you’re responsible, right?

HARI SREENIVASAN:  This is her second full year at the school, as part of a program called College Advising Corps.

As the school’s only dedicated college counselor, her mission is to have all of the school’s nearly 400 students believe college is an option.  It’s a mission that could be challenging in most American high schools.

But, at Manhattan Academy, few have any friends or relatives who have experience with American higher education.