Picking Up Where Bruni Leaves off: Summer Melt for Vulnerable Students
No shortage of issues on the whole college admissions mess, most particularly as relates to elite colleges. We could conduct this process much more effectively and efficiently and equitably -- for students, for families, for colleges. And, high schoolers should not define themselves by where they are accepted into college. Frank Bruni's new book tackles these key questions.
https://www.frankbrunibooks.com
See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-how-to-survive-the-college-admissions-madness.html; https://inmenlo.com/2015/04/14/talking-at-m-a-new-york-times-columnist-frank-bruni-challenges-college-admission-myths
But, and this is a big but, college admissions and financial aid packaging is only part of the problem for low income students. If you are accepted into and deposit at a college, most people assume you will show up. Thus, Bruni's title: Where You Go is Not WhoYou'll Be. Not so for a goodly percentage of low income students.
Colleges call this Summer Melt. Learn about summer melt and strategies to address it. For vulnerable students, this is a critically important issue. I get that high income kids actually show up at the college to which they deposited (with all the issues of rejection and financial aid hopefully behind them) but there remain abundant hurdles for low income kids.
The summer is a key problem time -- and it is not too late for high schools and colleges to address these issues before June 2015. The time to act is now. Bruni's book addresses getting in and feeling good about it; this piece linked below addresses actually showing up on the doorstep of the college where you deposited. Kind of hard to succeed if you never arrive!