Worried About Student Debt? Ask a Counselor

By: Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

It happens every year.  No sooner does school let out, and counselors complete their extra couple of days/weeks/months of work, and the headlines fill with a story that directly impacts our work.

This year’s topic is student debt.  Many articles are posted each May about the high price of college, but this year brought more of them than ever.  Many of them went to great lengths to include examples of students who took out $80-100,000 in loans to complete Bachelors’ degrees that held small value in the job market.  This has led to a number of articles countering that, all things equal, statistics show student debt isn’t all that much worse than it was ten or twenty years ago.  Now, in late June, the articles are challenging the data used in these articles, with the “sky is falling” team and the “things have always been this way” team trying to outmaneuver each other with discussions of mean, average, and outliers.

It’s important to read these articles, but it’s even more important to do so with a wary eye.  Yes, there are students who take out $80,000 loans to get degrees in things like Medieval Art History, but there aren’t that many, or the average debt load of graduates would be $80,000, when it’s currently $33,000.  That’s still a lot of money, unless of course your degree is in Engineering, when you will likely get a job before college is over, and that job will pay at least $55,000 a year.  That means $30,000 in debt isn’t a risky loan; it’s a wise investment. 

On the other hand, it really probably is a very bad idea to take $33,000 in loans to attend a local “college” that promises you a great-paying job in six months, when you have never heard of that college before they called you at home.  If their results were really that good, there’s a great chance someone—your parents, a friend, your counselor—would have told you about this at some point in your high school career. 

Beyond offering bad advice for students and parents, these articles hold a higher likelihood for compelling mischief when they recommend policy changes based on their limited use of statistics.  The “do nothing” crowd is totally oblivious to the number of debt-endowed students who are living with their parents—but that is where we find the largest increase in indebted students. 

At the same time, a remarkable number of high borrowers choose to attend higher-priced private colleges, rather than the lower-priced universities that, as a rule, are considered less prestigious.   Many people would rather drive an Accura than a Camry, but should we really alter college loan policies just because those who can well afford the Camry take loans to support a poorly-informed choice to go for the flashier ride?

The challenge in letting economists, politicians, and the media determine education policy is that none of them are educators, making it too easy to wander from reality when they try and find a “cause” and a “solution.” This year’s discussion of college costs is lengthier than prior years, but the quality of the debate has now devolved into arguing about one another’s figures.  Students and parents should let the argument continue without them; if you need help in deciding what’s best for you, talk to a counselor before you sign off of any loan, or decide to spend your life savings on a college just because it has a higher ranking.  Your decision shouldn’t be about prestige, or bimodal distributions—it should be about you.

More Time To Talk About College? Create a Class!

By: Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Late June is a time when school counselors think big.  Guided by a desire to increase service to their students, counselors take a minute from the cleaning of files and their year-end reports to consider next year—what could be better, what could be different, what could go easier?

When it comes to college counseling, it isn’t surprising that counselors consider the value of a college counseling class for their students.  Counselors want to talk with more students about college, and students want to focus on college selection with their ever-busy schedules.  A college counseling class meets both these needs, and creates a frequency of counselor-student interaction that’s hard to create with individual appointments or after-school seminars.

If the idea of regularly talking college appeals to you, consider each of these points as you create a proposal to take to your principal:

When will it be offered?  Just like the Biology teacher would love a two-hour block to complete in-depth labs, counselors would love to talk to students daily about college—but if that time can’t be built into the master schedule, it just isn’t going to happen.

This is where a counselor’s expertise in scheduling comes into play.  Is there a required senior course that meets every other day, allowing a college counseling class to fill the empty slots?  Is there an open period in your school’s block schedule where students can choose to study, where a college counseling class would meet an important need? Looking at the master schedule with new eyes could reveal a slot that’s begging to be filled.

If no holes exist, consider spreading the contents through existing classes.  Is there a Life Skills course where a College Counseling unit could be taught?  How about a Health or Careers course?  Many counselors are partnering with English classes to talk about the college essay; is there room there to expand the discussion to other parts of the college selection process?

It may seem backward to consider the shape of a course before creating its contents, but veteran counselors know the schedule drives all—so consider your time limitations first.

What will be covered?  If the goal is to provide a college counseling class where seniors use the time to apply to college, the curriculum is easy, with units on college selection, campus visits, parts of the college application, interviews, and financial aid.  If the course is aimed at juniors, many of these same topics can be addressed, plus test preparation.  A course for younger high school students should be less about application logistics and more about college readiness and awareness, focusing on study skills, extracurricular pursuits, college exploration, and more.  You know the curriculum by heart; build the class to meet the time specifications you have, then supplement the curriculum with field trips, and speakers.

How will it be graded?  This is a class that teaches the value of exploration, and students are less likely to investigate a variety of options if it means getting a bad grade for an option that doesn’t pan out.  It’s wise to make this a Pass/Fail course, based on completion of essential exploration activities and personal reflection, where the student shows evidence that they’ve thought about their plans for life after college; explored a reasonable number of options, and followed through on the options that make the most sense to them—even if that means not going to college.

It’s hard to find the time to meet the college needs of every single senior.  A scheduled college counseling class creates that time for you and your students—consider it closely. 

One last reminder- the online summer college counseling class for school counselors starts Monday, June 23^rd.   For more information on the class counselors call “the best counseling class I’ve ever taken”, 
 visit  http://www.collegeisyours.com/College_Counseling_Class.html

The Surprise End-of-the-Year Report

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

You’re just about to begin your summer, when your principal tells you about a new board-mandated counseling report that’s due in two weeks.  In a perfect world, you knew about this last fall, and set up the benchmarks and collection methods you knew you were going to need right now to put together a data-rich report with ease.  But you didn’t, so you couldn’t—what now?

Follow these simple steps, and you’ll have enough of a report to take to any reasonable principal with your head held high, and with your students at the center of your work.

Write down what went well.  A college professor calls this the Drive Home Analysis.  On his way home from every class, he thinks about what went well in the class he just taught, and thinks about why it worked.  This increases the chance future classes will go just as well when this same topic is taught.

Counselors can do the same thing right now.  Which counseling groups went well?  Which speakers were well received?  Why did you talk to fewer students about cheating this year, than last year?   Write it all down, and give yourself some credit for everything that worked.

Write down what didn’t go well.  Being the nice people they are, it’s usually easier for counselors to remember the programs, sessions, and presentations that fell short—we want to serve all students well, and we know when that doesn’t happen.  The best way to reach the goal of better service is to write down where things fell apart, and consider why.  The goal here isn’t to decide how to improve things; record what happened, and why, and leave it at that.

Review what data you have.  Now that you’ve had your intuitive say about your program, it’s time to look at the data.  You can’t make up numbers you didn’t know you needed, but every school keeps track of some things.  For starters, take a look at:

·         The number of discipline referrals you received

·         The number of personal  counseling sessions you conducted

·         Absence, tardiness, and truancy data

·         College application data

·         College financial aid and scholarship application data

·         College admissions results

·         College scholarship results

·         College persistence rates (if you have them through the National Clearinghouse)

It’s very likely this data can be used to compare last year to this year.  Even if this is an imperfect statistical analysis, it’s a place to begin a report, and a summer conversation about everything a counseling office really does. 

Conclude with recommendations.  Your first data-driven report isn’t going to be comprehensive, and that’s a good thing—if data was all your school needed, they’d hire an accountant, not a counselor.  Start your presentation with the data you have, then offer the insights you wrote down when you mentally reviewed your program.  This shows your principal you’re alert to the students and the school, even if you don’t have the numbers to back it up this year.

You end your report with recommendations—what to do to improve the data-based conclusions you have, and how to collect data on the conclusions you know exist, but can’t quantify this year.  This shows support for your principal, and receptivity to improvement that can lay the groundwork for more support from them.  It isn’t a perfect report, but you didn’t have much time to prepare; the best thing to do is to provide what you have, discuss what you’ll do next year, and lay the groundwork for mutually-beneficial improvement.

Three Easy, Essential Improvements to Your College Counseling Program

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

This is the time of year you love and hate.  You love it because at least one student will thank you for something you don’t remember doing, a parent of a senior will send a quick e-mail letting you know how much you’ve done for their child, or a colleague will thank you for helping them make it through a tough time. These moments make it all worthwhile.

We hate this time of year because someone, somewhere, is going to ask you about your goals for next year.  This doesn’t mean you’re opposed to growth—after all, you’re a counselor—but since June is one of the last remaining times our work allows us to catch our breath and see the big picture, continuous improvement can seem more of a nuisance than a necessity right now.

If the paperwork gods are demanding a June sacrifice, appease them by offering these program innovations that will both satisfy them and make a tremendous difference in your college counseling program, all without a great deal of effort:

College Application Week  This national program invites high schools to spend time in the fall focusing on the value of college.  Volunteers help every senior apply to at least one college, community groups offer special events and prizes to support college awareness programs for all students, and teachers wear their college gear and talk about their college experiences, all in the name of making college more real—and possible—for all students.  For more information on how one state embraces College Application Week, see http://www.micollegeaccess.org/events/college-application-week

FAFSA Completion Project  Most data in education doesn’t tell us all that much, but this statistic creates an Aha moment we can all build on—a student is more likely to go to college if they complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  This is especially true for students who don’t see themselves as “college material” (another goal-- obliterate that phrase); it may seem backwards, but many of these students will only take an interest in college once they know it’s affordable.

This is why schools devote counseling and community resources to help families complete the FAFSA.  Slated for January and February, the FAFSA Completion Project inspires high schools to open computer labs on nights and weekends so parents can complete the forms.  Invite the local college’s financial aid director to answer questions, and the process is inspiring and reassuring, since privacy-aware parents don’t have to share financial information with a school counselor or their children.  Engaging your local accountants and tax preparers is another key step, where they offer to help clients, friends, and neighbors complete the FAFSA in the privacy of their offices at no charge.

Stop Summer Melt  Despite your best efforts, there’s always a few seniors you worry about after graduation.  Will they really schedule a college orientation session?  Will they follow up on their college plans? Combined with a few summer surprises, some of your graduates just won’t get to college without some extra support.

Enter the Summer Melt project.  Studies show these students are more likely to go to college if someone they know reaches out to them over the summer. Since most counselors work summer days anyway, now is the time to get your principal to release you from office time in June to spend an hour or two each week contacting students from home with the help of e-mail, Remind 101 (texting) and a disposable cell phone.  This simple effort can make a world of difference, and it lets you start your summer sooner—there’s a great summer melt overview at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/cepr-resources/files/news-events/sdp-summer-melt-handbook.pdf

The College Question That Won’t Go Away

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

High school commencement is the unofficial end of the college application season, so it’s surprising to see the large number of articles and talk shows still focusing on the question, Is College Worth It?   It’s almost like clockwork; in  April, we find out Ivy U admitted three percent of their students; students are  then surprised by how little financial aid they will receive from their first choice college; we then wonder if college is really worth the cost—and then, it’s Mother’s Day.

The cost question seems to be holding on this year for a number of reasons.  Let’s take a look at each one:

The Economy is Better, but Not Great  Let’s face it—our fascination with the cost of college is tied directly with the number of parents who still don’t have the good paying jobs they had five years ago. If the middle class weren’t shrinking, the cost of college would be a nuisance, but not a nightmare. As it stands, counselors will have a few more years of conversations where students start locally and transfer to their dream school.

State Governments Claim They’re Broke  A good amount of the rise in college tuition is actually a shift in funding.  State governments have less revenue, so they give less money to public colleges; this requires the college to make up the difference by raising tuition.  Since it’s an election year, no state is going to raise taxes—but they may find a way to give more money to colleges, since that’s a popular issue. Of course, that money will come from somewhere, but you aren’t likely to know from where until November.  Keep an eye on this.

Pipe Fitters Make a Good Living, Too  America’s fascination with a four-year college degree arguably went a little overboard ten years ago, leading community college leaders and trades unions to remind us that their programs are valuable as well.  It’s certainly true that everyone has their own talents, and there are very few plumbers that are starving—but the average Bachelor’s Degree holder makes $600,000 more over a lifetime than anyone else, and their unemployment rate right now is around 3.5%.  Not everyone needs four years of college, but everyone should be prepared to take a long, hard look at that option before they turn it down.

Too Many Students Have Too Much Debt  Another casualty of the Great Recession is the idea of Good Debt. An engineer that borrows the average $29,000 to get a Bachelor’s Degree will likely walk into a starting salary of $70,000—so it’s worth the investment.  Degree holders in the liberal arts realize the same quality of return over a longer period of time, as long as they finish college. It’s time to bring that idea back to life.

This is an Expensive Risk for an Undecided Student  The one takeaway of this protracted discussion on cost is to find a way to balance college cost with the need for students to grow and explore. Most adults didn’t leave college with the major they started with, but that was before there were large number of students who drop out with no degree and significant debt. 

Cost makes it harder to give college students room to grow, yet that’s the whole point of college.  Without an answer to this essential question, it’s likely the discussion may reach beyond the Fourth of July—and rightfully so. Let’s hope we find an answer, and soon. 

Starting at a Community College?

By: Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Media coverage of the high cost of college is leading more students to consider community college as their starting point for life after high school.  The economic side of this argument is hard to deny; tuition at community college is almost always lower than that of a four-year college, and the commuter nature of community colleges means most attendees will live at home, leading to even greater savings through reduced cost on room and board. If you can save that much money now and transfer to a four-year college in two years, why not do it?

The theory of “start local and transfer” is almost too good to pass up, but study after study shows remarkably few community college students go on to earn a four-year degree.  If you’re considering a community college option to start your journey to a four-year degree, keep these important points in mind:

Some four-year colleges don’t take transfer students.  Students often choose a community college start after they’ve been turned down for admission at Dream School U.  This gives them the option of deferring their dream, not denying it; start here, earn strong grades, and get your dream back on track by transferring next year.

If that’s your thinking, do your homework about your next college.  Many colleges only accept transfer students if enough freshmen don’t return for their sophomore year.  Since the return rate is often around 98% at highly selective colleges, they don’t have space for transfer students, so they don’t offer that option.  Be sure to ask your destination college about transfer before you make any plans.

Many classes don’t transfer the right way.  Let’s say you spend a year as a full-time student at a local community college, and get As and Bs in all of your classes. Your next college accepts you based on your high GPA, so that means you only have three years of college to go before you graduate, right?

Usually, no.  Some of the classes you completed at community college may not be accepted for transfer to a four-year college, especially if they were classes that helped you gain a better understanding of some key ideas you didn’t grasp in high school.  Other classes may cover new material, but your next school may only give you elective credit for them, especially if they don’t offer that class.  As a result, you get elective credit for the class—but you still have to take the courses required to get a Bachelor’s Degree.

There are two ways to make sure the community college classes you take will count at your next school.  It’s easy to keep track if your next school has a transfer guide that spells out the classes you should take at your community college that will meet your next school’s graduation requirements.  If you follow that list, you’re sure to land on your feet.  If a transfer guide isn’t available, talk to the transfer counselor at your next school every semester, and give them your schedule.  This is less official, but this approach can help avoid surprises as well.

Campus life is different.  Not every four-year college has a football team, and not every community college has a dead campus on weekends, but if the social side of college is important to you, be sure to tour the community college before you enroll. If the fit isn’t right, look around; there may be a more active community college campus just down the road. 

Testing Our College Assumptions

By: Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Now that we’re at the end of the college application season, it’s time to consider the validity of some ideas that are generally viewed as true.  It isn’t always easy to challenge our deepest assumptions, but since we’ve just spent eight months getting students into colleges to do just that for the next four years, it might be worthwhile to lead by example.  Let’s see what happens.

College Ready and Career Ready Are the Same Thing This idea came around about ten years ago, right after all of America was convinced that “going to college” meant “going to a four-year college.”  When skyrocketing dropout rates and loan default percentages suggested a four year college may not be part of everyone’s destiny, a few educators (largely community college employees) pointed out that many careers requiring little or no college still require advanced math—so college-bound students and career-bound students really need the same set of skills.

The sentiment is understandable, but this statement is simply wrong. America’s rush to send everyone to four-year colleges proves this point; while some had the skills necessary to make the most out of four more years of school, many didn’t—and most of them were really glad to realize that.  They then went on to some other kind of training or experience, including community college (which is college) or an apprenticeship (which isn’t college). Some of this training may have required understanding the importance of sine and cosine, but most required something else that may be easier, or harder; either way, it was different.

Some Colleges Are More Important Than Others  This time of year gives us a chance to remember that  about 3 percent of the colleges in the United States run out of space before they run out of applicants—the rest do not. This is a surprise to many families, since almost all of the media coverage on applying to college focuses on that 3 percent, giving us the impression that getting into any college requires all kinds of packaging, test prepping, and strategy.

If it really is that easy to get into college, why is there so much focus on the few where admission is hard?  Some will say it’s because the competition brings a sense of excitement, while others will tell you the media only covers controversy. A third perspective suggests this handful of schools grabs our attention because these schools are the best at what they do, and what parent (or student) in their right mind doesn’t want the best?

The answer to this question is another question—“best” according to whom?  Students who feel at home in liberal arts colleges with small class sizes may not feel at home at a college with large lectures, but other students would find too little to do or think about at a small leafy school. Some of the top 3 percent may be attractive to a large number of wealthy families, but does that make them more valuable to the rest of us—and if so, why?

We’re still suffering from some sense of elitism about the four-year college experience in this country, where some four-year colleges are viewed as more special than others, and all two-year colleges are viewed as less important than any four-year college. I don’t know how that started, but it’s time for it to stop.  Physicians and plumbers are special, important, and different.  The years each one spent in college doesn’t make their difference more special—it just makes it different.  That’s a reason to be happy, not nervous.