Creating college opportunity

Abstract

School-based counselors are the primary facilitators of college transition for many students, yet little is known about their influence on college-going behavior. Given the need to improve college participation rates, and given the substantial number of students who rely on school personnel to access college, the following, two-part dissertation aims to assess the relationship between school-based college counseling and postsecondary attendance, and devotes special attention to the postsecondary destinations of students with low socioeconomic status. Analyzing data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, Part One employs coarsened exact matching and multilevel modeling to examine the effects of student-counselor visits on postsecondary enrollment, as well as determine whether the effects of such visits vary by socioeconomic status. Results suggest that visiting a counselor for college entrance information has a positive and significant influence on students’ likelihood of postsecondary enrollment, and that counseling-related effects are greatest for students with low socioeconomic status. Part Two is a multi-state analysis and employs difference-in-differences modeling to assess the enrollment-related effects of the National College Advising Corps (NCAC), an organization that aims to supplement the work of school counselors and help guide low-SES and other underrepresented students through the college admissions and financial aid processes. Results suggest that NCAC and other similar organizations may improve college-going in high schools that primarily serve low-SES students and where enrollment rates are less than what measures of high school achievement and college readiness would indicate. In sum, both studies reveal the positive influence that school-based college counselors may have on improving the postsecondary enrollment of low-SES and other disadvantaged students.