Potholes on the road to college

This month’s Catalyst reports on a new Consortium on Chicago School Research study, building on their 2006 report that few CPS graduates are earning college degrees.  The new report explains that the reason they’re not getting degrees is because they’re not applying to college.

In this new report, researchers asked seniors in surveys and interviews about their college plans. In the spring, 90 percent said they wanted to go to college. By fall, only 61 percent had enrolled.

The report says there are many “potholes” that stymie students—from lack of family support to lack of follow-through.

The most fundamental problem is that 40 percent of seniors who say they want to complete a four-year college never apply to one.

One interesting thing, since we’re always hearing about how unprepared high school graduates are for college, the study showed the students were having the opposite problem: they were often choosing colleges for which they were overqualified, rather than stretching for more selective or competitive schools. (And the older study already pointed out, many of the colleges of choice for CPS grads have notoriously low graduation rates).

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