Some thoughts on this text thus far: The 10th grade cut-off for exposure to college is very compelling since our after school programs are targeted to students from 7th - 10th. In addition the number one influence on what colleges students choose is social class. I was surprised a bit because I thought that academics guided where you apply, but that is one of the other leading factors. McDonough made an interesting example in that two students with the same strong academic background will choose different colleges based on their SES (socioeconomic status). The higher SES student will choose IVY and the lower SES will choose public colleges. Hmmm. This is extremely of interest to me since I am intrigued by how low SES students pigeon hole themselves into less challenging situations. It seems that fear, and social, familial factors have a huge impact on their college decisions.
Future Research Thoughts: (1) 10th grade cut-off premise effects college choice, the amount of colleges applied to and if students even apply. The pre-10th grade exposure can be further explored in a study regarding Latina/o students. (2) Latina/os dual language skills and cultural capital when applied to the premise above will show what? Positive: That Latina/o students do not correlate with the general rule, they surpass the standard. Without college exposure they do well in 11th and 12th grade and apply to colleges because of the language skill issue and cultural capital influences. Negative: (somewhat influenced by Cisneros statistics of Latina/o education) Latina/os are the lowest achieving high school students in the country. They drop out more and are less likely to attend college. Hence, then the 10th grade premise will show with a study of Latina/o students that they do worse than non-Latina/o students in reference to college exposure or that they are equal to non-Latina/o students in reference to applying to college, the amount of colleges applied to, and if the sorts of colleges applied to.
So I would like to study bi-lingual programs in Rochester and/ or Latina/o students in Rochester in there 10th, 11th, and 12th grade years and compare them to non-Latina/o students during these years and see how much this college influence premise effects the outcome of college choice.
