Community Colleges: Across the United States nearly 1,200 community colleges play a vital role in higher education. They enroll more than 11.5 million students — nearly half of all undergraduates — and they attract high proportions of low-income, minority and first-generation college students. Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count is a national initiative to help more community college students succeed, particularly students of color and low-income students. The initiative works on multiple fronts — including efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement and public policy — and emphasizes the use of data to drive change. More...

Changing college-going patterns

When low-income, minority kids have a chance to explore a college campus and see themselves as college students, the results can be profound.

For some Hammond, Ind., high school students, who have had the opportunity to attend workshops and field trips with Dave Murray of the National Center for College Costs, “profound” barely begins to describe their experience.

Enrollment expert Dave Murray helps students picture themselves as college graduates.

“We’re changing the college-going patterns of these kids,” says Kathy Hayden, a guidance counselor at Hammond High School. Last year, Hayden notes, she had four students apply to Franklin College (a private, four-year liberal arts college in central Indiana), and all four were accepted. “That’s never happened before,” she says. In the past many students attended community college or the regional campus of Purdue University -- if they attended college at all.

Daily living is a challenge for most of these students

For much of this student population, affording the daily necessities is challenging enough without adding worries about how to pay for college. The school is in the northwest corner of Indiana just outside Chicago. Its student population is 54 percent African-American, 26 percent Hispanic, 17 percent white, and 3 percent multiracial. About 70 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch programs, but Hayden estimates about 90 percent need assistance. Many seniors, she says, don’t like to turn in the required paperwork and would rather not eat than receive free lunch.

Enrollment for the 2004-2005 school year is about 875 students – only about 160 of them in their senior year. Last year, 91 students graduated from the high school. On any given day three to four students transfer in or out. In the first four months of this school year, 119 students withdrew and 90 new students enrolled.

Key ingredient: Students see themselves in college

Murray and the National Center for College Costs began working with students, parents and staff at Hammond High in 2002 as part of a pilot project funded by Lumina Foundation for Education. The project’s goal is to determine whether early college advising can increase the number of low-income and minority students who go to college after high school and successfully complete their postsecondary education.

Students attend a variety of workshops with Murray, depending on their grade level. Sophomores, for instance, participate in mock college admissions case studies. They review actual college files, and they work in committees to choose two "college applicants" to accept, one to reject and one to put on a waiting list. Then Murray tells them what the college actually did.

“This exercise really shows them that high school course selections matter, attendance patterns matter, and their attitude during an interview can make a difference,” he says.

When they are juniors, Murray takes students to visit campuses at Franklin College and IUPUI. They meet with faculty and staff at the colleges, hear from a student panel, take a tour and enjoy lunch. Most important: They see themselves as college students. “It’s very thought-provoking for them,” Murray says. “It’s a key ingredient to what we can accomplish.”

Seniors work with Murray to prepare college application essays, and they attend a “College Survival 101” workshop that gives them tips about how to break down a syllabus, plan academic assignments, and manage their cash flow and their financial aid.

Students, parents learn that they can find a way to pay for college

In addition Murray works with parents and students to help them determine how to pay for college. For each family he completes a “college cost estimator,” which he says can be a powerful motivator in showing families that financing a college education is within their grasp. During a recent student workshop he walked around the room as students completed the paperwork, showing them how they could qualify for a Pell grant or other aid.

“You could see the kids’ eyes light up,” he says. At an evening session shortly thereafter, more than 50 parents attended even though school officials told him to expect no more than 10. “The kids got their parents there,” he says.

Hammond High graduate, Stacey McClelland, 19, a freshman elementary education major at Franklin, says the college cost estimator made all the difference to her. “I was worried about college. I knew my parents couldn’t pay for it, and I didn’t think I could pay for it,” she says. “The estimator really opened my eyes.” Read more about Stacey and her roommate, LuShawna.

Murray says of the 127 students for whom he’s done college cost estimators since 2002, 80 percent are eligible for federal Pell grants and 49 percent had no expected family contribution. The median expected family contribution for the group was $118.

Hayden says the estimator also has helped some students see that their part-time jobs can hurt their ability to qualify for financial aid. One Hispanic student, who was ranked third in the class, had a difficult time explaining to his parents that he would receive more financial aid if he quit his job for a few months than if he kept working.

Diversity, too, is an issue, for the kids at Hammond High. “Our students need to realize the State of Indiana is not like Hammond High,” she says. “Students come back and tell me that people say, ‘I’m the first minority they’ve ever seen.’ ” Hayden says she tries to work with students to emphasize that they need to look at the support services college campuses offer so that they feel comfortable where they go to school.

Murray’s program – including the campus visits – has helped more students find colleges that fit. “They are getting out there, and they are looking. They know they have to set foot on the campuses,” Hayden says.

Murray and Hayden say it will be at least one more year before they have statistics to quantify the program's effectiveness in helping more students enter college. Learn more about Murray’s National Center for College Costs.