As part of its College Match Program, MDRC has released an application guide for “counselors, teachers, and advisers who work with high school students from low-income families and students who are the first in their families to pursue a college education.”
A “match” school embodies two important qualities: It is academically suited for the student, and it meets her financial, social, and personal needs. Unfortunately, “undermatching”—enrolling in schools for which one is academically overqualified or not applying to college at all—is all too common for low-income kids, driving down their college completion rates. Myriad factors at the student, secondary, and post-secondary levels can lead to this phenomenon, including lack of information, concerns about leaving home, minimal training for adults working with students, and limited college recruitment practices.
MDRC’s solution is the College Match Program. Between 2010 and 2014, it placed “near-peer” advisers, who are recent college graduates with training in college advising, in low-income high schools (eight in Chicago and two in New York City) to support students as they navigated the school-selection and financial aid application process. Approximately 1,200 students were served. Researchers conclude that students are willing to apply to selective colleges when they (1) have an opportunity to learn about the options available to them; (2) engage in the college application process early enough to meet important deadlines; and (3) have support and encouragement along the way.
As a former high school teacher who often felt ill-prepared to offer advice to college-bound students, I wish I had had access to MDRC’s guide. It’s informative, well-organized, and easy to use. It carefully describes the six-stage process, providing timelines, online resources, and real-life case studies for each step. It also offers tips that describe various keys to success, such as building a “match culture” within a school, enlisting teachers and other staff to assist in integral stages, and engaging parents, who are typically as unfamiliar with the process as their children.
The authors caution readers not to treat this document as a “user’s manual for creating and implementing a match program.” All the same, it provides valuable insight and resources for those hoping to better guide an underserved population through the college application process.
SOURCE: D. Crystal Byndloss et al., “In Search of a Match: A Guide for Helping Students Make Informed College Choices,” MDRC (April 2015).