"summer melt"
"The rate with which kids who are college-intending do not actually get to college in the fall is surprisingly high," says Lindsay Page, an education researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. "In one sample that we looked at in the Boston area, we find that upwards of 20% of kids who at the time of high school graduation say that they're continuing on to college — about 20% of those kids don't actually show up in the fall."
Researchers call this phenomenon "summer melt" — and for universities, it has long been a puzzling problem. Because these are the kids who made it: they've taken the SATs, been accepted to a college of their choice, applied for and received financial aid. Why wouldn't they show up for college on day one?
Source:
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/17/537740926/why-arent-students-showing-up-for-college
Definitely a thing at my joint, and it gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm sure some of the students we were expecting have found new opportunities that work out well for them, but on the other I'm sure some disappear due to stress, financial concerns, or other unfortunate reasons.
ReplyDeleteWhere I am, some students come off wait lists and bail. In a few cases, they do it after orientation.
ReplyDeleteStill need to listen to the show, but I'm guessing that inadequate financial aid is a big reason. (And if realizing that their original plan really isn't affordable means that the student switches to living at home and going to community college for 2 years, or going to trade school, or joining the military, that isn't necessarily a bad outcome).
ReplyDeleteI can't hear the pod-cast on my device, but I have a hypothesis. I have a degree in higher education administration. A lot of this is related to all of the stupid fucking red tape that, even through the eyes of an administrator, I believes is a giant steaming crock of shit.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest is starting in a few weeks and he couldn't get anyone in admissions, the bursar, or financial aid to tell him how to claim a $19,000 scholarship he was awarded. He got a bill and was told if it wasn't paid he'd be dropped from all of his classes. He called and e-mailed a "help" contact in all three of those offices and no one bothered to fucking reply.
Ultimately it was a box that had to be checked in his student account. He couldn't access the account because he needed school e-mail. Oh, yes, he had school e-mail. They e-mailed him the bill at his personal e-mail address (the one he used on his application), and e-mailed him the e-mail about having new university e-mail AT THE UNIVERSITY E-MAIL ADDRESS.
They e-mail him the threat where he can get it and the solution where he can't.
I got my admin degree after having been an adjunct for almost a decade. I think you have to be down in the trenches with their little faces to fully grasp what is meant by "emerging adulthood". I don't think a lot of administrators grasp that incoming freshman are even human, let alone still working with a brand-new shiny prefrontal cortex.
Fortunately, I have an administration degree (have I mentioned that yet?) so I told him "Try registrar" and then I profiled the shit out of the names in the directory for the office of the registrar. I told him to call Woman-with-popular-name-from-late60s-early70s. i.e. a woman who might have a son his age who went through this recently.
We'll call her "Lisa" (but it was something else). Lisa took over his computer remotely and claimed his scholarship and the child of a woman with a degree in administration was able to escape the melt.
How are MOST kids supposed to navigate this fucking bullshit? What about first-gen students?
So much fucking bullshit.