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Financial Concerns, Information, and Taking the Steps to Attend a Four-Year College
A major finding of this study is that the differences in the four-year college enrollment rates between college-qualified low-income and middle-income students, as well as those among the college-qualified students in the various racial-ethnic groups, are eliminated among those who take both steps toward four-year college admission. The NELS survey includes some data which may help explain why some students are less likely to take the necessary steps. These include the responses of the students and their parents to questions about college affordability and to questions about the financial aid information they had available.In the spring of 1992, the graduating high school seniors who indicated they were planning to continue their education and their parents were asked a number of questions about the importance of college costs and financial aid in choosing a college and about their sources of financial aid information\37\. Tables 27 through 29 compare the responses to some of these questions by the college-qualified seniors and their parents.
Table 27 shows the percentage of 1992 college-qualified seniors and their parents who demonstrated that they were very concerned about college affordability by indicating that both the availability of financial aid and total college costs were "very important" in choosing an institution to attend, or that one was "very important" and the other "somewhat important." Low-income students and their parents were more likely to be very concerned about financial aid and college costs in choosing a college to attend than their middle-income counterparts, and middle-income students and parents were more concerned than those from high-income families. In low-income families, the parents were more likely to be concerned about college affordability than their children (79 percent compared to 69 percent). Both black and Hispanic students and parents were more likely to be concerned about affordability than their Asian and white counterparts. In Hispanic families, the parents were also more likely to be concerned about college affordability than their children (71 percent compared to 56 percent), in contrast to black families, where the parents and the students were equally concerned about meeting college costs (70 percent of parents and 74 percent of students). One important difference between Hispanic and black high school seniors is that black students are much more concerned about college affordability.
Table 28 shows the proportions of 1992 high school graduates and their parents who had read financial aid information from the U.S. Department of Education or from postsecondary institutions by their senior year of high school. Parents were much more likely to have read information from both sources than the students. Low-income parents were just as likely to have read information from two sources as middle-income parents (54 and 56 percent), but low-income students were more likely to have obtained financial aid information from both sources than their middle-income counterparts.
Table 29 shows the proportion of college-qualified students and their parents who obtained information about financial aid from teachers and guidance counselors, college representatives, loan officers, and other knowledgeable people. Low-income students were more likely to have discussed financial aid with a high school teacher or guidance counselor (72 percent) and with college representatives (49 percent) than middle- or high-income students. Black students were also more likely to have discussed financial aid with teachers and counselors (77 percent) or college representatives (57 percent) than students from other racial-ethnic groups. There were no differences in the proportions of low-, middle-, and high-income parents who spoke to teachers and counselors, but a larger proportion of low- and middle-income parents spoke with college representatives about financial aid, while a larger percentage of middle-income parents had spoken to a loan officer at a bank.
In summary, low-income, black, and Hispanic parents of college-qualified seniors were very concerned about costs and the availability of financial aid in choosing a college; however, among these three groups only the black students were as concerned as their parents. College-qualified low-income students were more likely than their middle-income counterparts to read information and speak to teachers, guidance counselors, and college representatives about financial aid. Low-income parents, however, apparently did not have any more information about financial aid than middle-income parents. College-qualified black students were not only more concerned about college affordability than Hispanic students, they were also more likely to have discussed financial aid with teachers, guidance counselors, and college representatives.
Whether taking the steps toward attending a four-year institution is related to concerns about college affordability and information about financial aid is examined in tables 30 through 32. These tables focus on the college-qualified seniors from low-income, middle-income, Hispanic, and black backgrounds, which are the groups that are most concerned about college affordability as discussed above.
Table 30 examines the relationship between concerns about college affordability and taking both steps toward attending a four-year college. It shows the percentage of college-qualified students who took both steps, comparing those students and parents who were very concerned about affordability to those who were less than very concerned. The difference in the degree of concern expressed about college affordability by students and parents from low- and middle-income and black and Hispanic families was not related to differences in the proportions of students taking both steps towards attending a four-year institution. However, because the affordability questions were asked only of those who planned to attend postsecondary education, this result does not address the issue of whether cost concerns had discouraged students from planning to go to college in the first place.
Table 31 examines the relationship of taking both steps to the number of sources of information read about financial aid. All low-and middle-income, black, and Hispanic students who read information about financial aid from one or more sources were more likely to take both steps toward attending a four-year institution than those who did not read any information\38\. For example, 48 percent of college-qualified low-income students who did not read any information on financial aid took both steps, compared to over 70 percent who obtained information from one or two sources.
Similarly, as shown in table 32, low- and middle-income students who spoke with at least one person about financial aid were more likely to have taken both steps toward attending a four-year institution than those who did not speak with anyone. For example, 35 percent of low-income students who did not talk with anyone about financial aid applied to a four-year college and took a college entrance examination, compared to 52 percent who talked with one person, 67 percent who talked with two, and 75 percent who talked with three or more people. Among Hispanic and black students, those who spoke with two or more people were also more likely to take both steps toward attending a four-year institution than those who had spoken with no one\39\.
In summary, the more sources of information they had obtained, and the more people with whom they had discussed financial aid, the more likely that college-qualified low- and middle-income, black, and Hispanic students would have taken the college entrance exams and applied for admission to a four-year college\40\. Although there is a positive relationship between getting information about financial aid and taking the steps toward attending college, it cannot be concluded that there is a causal relationship. That is, it may be that students who have already decided to go to college seek out more information about financial aid, or it may be that those who get more information are more likely to take the steps toward going to college.
Footnotes:
37/ Most of the students who planned to attend college would have already applied and taken the entrance exams at this point.
38/ The exception to this is no difference between black students who read nothing compared with those who read two sources. Although the difference appears large, the estimates are not significantly different.
39/ Although the difference in this proportion between Hispanic students who spoke with no one and those who spoke with one person appears large, these estimates are associated with large standard errors and the difference is not sta-tistically significant.
40/ The importance of information for low-income students has recently been shown in J. King, The Decision to Go to College (Washington, D.C.: The College Board, 1996).
