The New York Times
By:
The United States has a dropout crisis. Sixty percent of people go to college these days, but just half of the college students graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Some people earn a shorter, two-year associate’s degree. But more than a quarter of those who start college drop out with no credential.
Despite the rising cost of education, a college degree is one of the best investments that a young person can make. In 2015, median earnings among workers aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree were $43,000, compared with $25,000 for those with just a high school diploma. Over a lifetime, a person with a bachelor’s degree typically earns $800,000 more than someone who has completed only high school, even after netting out tuition costs.
The financial prospects for college dropouts are poor, for two reasons. First, dropouts earn little more than people with no college education. Second, many dropouts have taken on student loans, and with their low wages, they have difficulty paying off even small balances. Dropouts account for much of the increase in financial distress among student borrowers since the Great Recession.
The dropout problem is particularly acute for students whose parents did not attend college. First-generation students beat enormous odds by even enrolling in a four-year degree program. Yet 30 percent of first-generation freshmen drop out of school within three years. That is three times the dropout rate of students whose parents graduated from college.
Why is the dropout rate so high, particularly among first-generation students? The consensus among researchers is that there is no single culprit — and, therefore, no silver bullet. First-generation students tend to have less money, have weaker academic preparation and attend colleges with fewer instructional resources. All of these have been shown to increase the likelihood of dropping out.
Critically, first-generation students also miss out on the advice, support and voice of experience provided by parents with firsthand experience of higher education. There is only so much information that overburdened guidance counselors can cram into students during a few short meetings.
In families with college-educated parents, important information is delivered every day, often in small, casual conversations, during the car pool ride to school, while running errands or during meals. College-educated family members can steer students toward institutions that match their interests and majors that suit their strengths. They can provide advice on which courses to take and when to take them, cautioning that a tough chemistry course should be balanced with a less-demanding class. They can suggest that work hours be scaled back during finals week. It may not be obvious at the time, but these informal conversations can play a surprisingly important role in a student’s success.
First-generation students, who don’t have a de facto college adviser at home, would benefit from some extra support. Researchers are uncovering promising interventions that help get these students to graduation.
Details matter. In one counseling program, professional advisers periodically called students who were in academic difficulty. The counselors worked with students on the “soft skills” that college requires, like time management and organization. The discussions were personalized and concrete: “Don’t you need some extra time to study for midterms? Perhaps you should you cut back on your work hours this week.” Coached students were more likely to stay in college and graduate.
For students who are the first in their family to tackle the bureaucratic hurdles of applying for financial aid and enrolling in college, missed paperwork can lead to lost opportunities and an increased risk of dropping out. Small things add up. Parents who have never registered for a college course may not realize, for example, that being at the top of the waiting list for an oversubscribed class is often the way to gain entrance to it.
Benjamin L. Castleman of the University of Virginia and Lindsay C. Page of the University of Pittsburgh devised a program that nudges students to complete the administrative paperwork required to stay in college. They sent texts reminding students to complete their re-enrollment forms and financial aid applications. Among freshmen who received the texts, 68 percent completed their sophomore year, compared with 54 percent of those who did not receive reminders.
A new program at the City University of New York offers many of the supports that college-educated parents typically provide: intensive advising, a subway pass, textbooks and money to cover any shortfall between costs and financial aid. The CUNY program doubled the three-year graduation rate and also increased the proportion of students who went on from a two-year community college to a four-year institution. The program is now being replicated at colleges in Ohio.
At the federal level, the Obama administration last month introduced two new initiatives to encourage students to move quickly toward their degrees. It takes six years for the typical student to finish a bachelor’s degree, and those two extra years of college lead to higher tuition costs and more student debt. Part of the problem is that the federal aid system defines as “full time” a level of effort (12 credits a semester) that can’t possibly get a student out the door in four years.
A new “On-track Pell bonus” will increase the grants of low-income students who enroll in 15 credits a semester. The bonus is intended to signal that 15 credits is the right level of course work if students want to graduate on time. They will also now be eligible for federal aid for three semesters each year should they want to shorten their time to graduation by taking courses year-round.
Helping students to enter college isn’t enough. For higher education to fulfill its promise as an engine of economic mobility, we need to get students across the finish line to graduation.
