What if they showed up with the curated content ready to go?
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Sure, if it is thorough, accurate, and written by someone who is well versed in whatever the article’s topic is.
IMO many of the CC ‘articles’ that are written now are overly generic in nature, not that an overview can’t be helpful…but there are so many web resources to get information of that type.
Some of the more detailed CC admin articles have been written by those who seemingly do not have a good command of the subject matter. For example, a couple of months ago an article on Financial Aid was posted that had glaring inaccuracies in it. A couple of posters, including myself, commented as such and the post was taken down, it just disappeared. I haven’t seen a corrected version reappear.
I don’t have all the answers but I’m saying if you want counselors (HS and/or independents) to support and recommend CC, they have to believe students will receive accurate information and advice.
My advice for AA students - and to a lesser extent other URM - is to concentrate on test prep in order to achieve the highest scores you possibly can. For other demographics, test scores are comparatively less important, but for URM (particularly AA) test scores can be an enormous leg up, regardless of what admissions officers say with regard to their “holistic” policies.
We are URM (Hispanic), and have seen many URM students go through the admissions processes over the years (including paying attention to the many posters on here and to those students in our own and our friends’ families). We are hardly “tone deaf” with regard to topics of race and college admissions.
I enjoy reading the AA parents’ threads on occasion because often there is a refreshing honesty about the admissions processes (including URM preferences) that is utterly lacking in posts by presumably white upper middle class suburban posters.
This thread is really meant to be for ideas as to what CC can do, not students in general. @onemoretogo2021, if you’d like to start a thread with ideas for students, that would be great.
Some of them also have an implied assumption of the historical forum demographic (students with upper income/wealth parents who will pay for any college without needing financial aid, preferably a residential one). While not specifically relating to African American students, it should be noted that African American students and parents are underrepresented among that demographic.
I would like @CCadmin_Jon to weigh back in when he gets a chance. There have been many suggestions made. Which of those are of interest for further exploration?
I was just thinking of posting something similar. There have been a lot of wide-ranging (and some quite ambitious) suggestions made so far. Who is expected to implement the chosen suggestions?
here is just one small suggestion = but something I’ve encountered.
a few years back though, I was asking a few questions for a family friend here on CC, trying to gain insight. The mom is from Western Africa, not native English speaking, doesn’t understand the American college system or western culture for that matter, and I wanted help after her kid got his 34 ACT. This site would absolutely have made no sense for her.
but “asking for a friend” is not allowed. I had so many questions though, and could have helped this family in many ways had I known some answers from the very wise posters here. The “asking for a friend” can apply to anyone of course; it would have helped with me being the middle-man and explaining things. Not having that ban would have just been one small way to have helped this single mom and her son with college admissions.
@bgbg4us, we understand your concern but we feel like this rule is important. You wouldn’t believe how many requests we get EVERY DAY from kids who want their OWN posts deleted.
For privacy reasons, we just can’t permit people to ask specific questions for other people. I could see a kid saying, “Hey, yeah, that would be great if you could ask for help!” and then a week later thinking, “Shoot, I can’t believe all my stats and other personal info have been posted for a bunch of strangers to see and pick apart. I want out!”
You can post general questions or send PMs to helpful users if you’d like, though. I know it’s not perfect, but I wanted to let you know the thinking behind the rule.
Could there be an option for a person to post in a role of acting as a college counselor, or someone shepherding a non-family student, through the college admissions process?
I do think there needs to be a thread that leads with:
“I’m a minority kid and I want to go to college but don’t know how to start.”
I’ve sent a few PMs to student that I later discovered were African-American students who were frustrated, or needed help, and couldn’t turn to the guidance counselors because the guidance counselors were just too busy or assumed that the child couldn’t get into a college.
I think we need to help the “average” student because a lot of our African-American students have been labeled as “average” but they’re beyond that; they’re bright and smart. They just haven’t received that attention from teachers or counselors if they’re not STAR athletes. That happened a lot, at the high school that I worked at and when I volunteered with my kids sports, I spoke to a number of these students.
A lot of them weren’t given a college roadmap so they didnt appear interested, and it seemed like a lot of hurdles for them; they didn’t want to get hurt again.
I think that if we have a thread that says “where do I start” with instructions on how to maneuver this website to ask questions, it might help.
For example, The student’s first question is almost always about money: do you think I can afford it? A lot of kids don’t get involved with their parents’ tax forms, and don’t know what a 1040 is. In California, state residents can be eligible for state funding if the family files or estimates taxes before March 2. The problem is that taxes are due on April 15, and a number of low income families, have someone else do their taxes, who charge high fees. The families wait until the last minute, or wait to save dollars in order to pay those fees to get their taxes done.
Everything Aunt Bea said are the sort of things I think should be included as individual thread or sticky articles that would appear in a URM forum. There are certainly URM students that should be in top 40 universities, but just like the majority of all students, the majority of URMs are looking at attending colleges on the other side of 50, the other side of 100 and further out on the list.
It would be nice to see CC be more welcoming of and immediately useful to those students.
Here are some reference sources for professionals interested in race relations and education. Some very good people have been working on this for decades. Can all this research be transformed into practical, effective college advising? How about establishing a resource library on these related resources? See https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ViCuBIoAAAAJ
I am not and never have been a HS counselor, but I did work with them. What are their operational resources on this topic? When I was in the admissions business, we used to give free 7AM breakfasts to HS guidance counselors and have round table discussions with colleagues from the area. The rapport and information exchange was very supportive to those attending. Those working at the heart of the problem need the time and space to talk with each other. The format is much better than a lecture.
How about smaller breakfasts workshops for mixed groups of HS and college counselors. KEY: one talented facilitator to get the breakfast going. Counselors get a free breakfast before their regular workday starts. It worked for us in the Northeast many, many years ago! Any larger city would have plenty of interests and CC would be well recognized in short order! Create a buzz in a positive direction. The counselors I met were very receptive and encouraged. They need the opportunity to charge up before the day starts.
CC becomes a resource interfaced with the internet.
@retiredfarmer has great ideas! @CCadmin_Jon what do you think of the ideas presented so far? Are they along the lines of what you are thinking would be what CC could do?
I volunteer with a first gen program for high school and middle school students.
On the AA and Latino students sub forums I used to put my lists of sleep away summer programs that are encouraging minorities and first gen to apply to them, as well as programs that are low cost or have financial aid. For the most part they were not the summer programs that get discussed in the summer programs page. Those skew to the highly competitive and expensive.
Could a subform be created in the summer section for first gen and minority? Often any program that gets them on a campus or into a new environment is good. One such program introduced my husband to computers and changed his life.
I want to apologize for not being involved in this thread. There’s a lot going on here, but I wanted to pick up on the theme of data collection. We’ve looking at changing the registration process on College Confidential since:
I also started reading [Algorithms of Oppression](Algorithms of Oppression - Wikipedia), which looks at the way supposedly neutral algorithms can be far from harmless. As you mention, asking for a lot of personal data might also discourage people who aren’t comfortable with giving it out.
All of this to say, this is useful feedback that I’ll pass on to our development team.
I’m a lot less sure what we can do when it comes to people asking for more information in the forums themselves. We’ve noticed people tend to be pretty free with data like GPA and SAT scores on this site compared to others. I suppose that’s the “confidential” bit of our name showing through. People who don’t share their data shouldn’t be harassed for it, obviously. But I can see how not having some of that information might make advice less relevant. Gotta strike a balance, I suppose.
When my wife and I were expecting our oldest, we signed up with [url=https://www.babycenter.com/]BabyCenter[/url]. They sent out regular emails with what was going on with our child. It included reminders of what vaccinations he should get and what to look for developmentally. Later we had twins, which is a similar, but not identical experience. At any rate, these emails really helped us from being overwhelmed with all the worries of being a parent for the first time. It helped us know where to start.
As my oldest is getting ready for college, I feel something similar would really be helpful. A “where do I start” thread seems useful to me and I grew up in a family steeped in the education system. My parents are both college professors. So how much more useful would that be for a first generation college student!
Collecting that basic advise for people new to the process and minorities seems like a step the CC community can take right away. If anyone would like to organize that effort, please PM me.
Over the years I have become the go to guy in my neighborhood for first generation students looking to go to college. I have referred many to this website but typically I feel like this website is for exceptional students and they really have wade thru alot post to find some useful information. These kids go to regional schools and they have average ACT/SAT scores. Most of the parents have no idea what is required to apply for finanical aid and most simply assume they can’t afford to send their kids to college. I would be nice if we had a tab for first generation students and the process for applying and paying for college. More focus on regional schools would be really helpfull. I think there are enough members on forum to pretty much cover every state. What we consider a safety school on this site is a dream school for most of these kids. I appreciate your concern in this matter.
I’ve been thinking it might also be nice to provide a list of reading references for white users (and non-Black users of color) that would help answer questions about Black experiences that wouldn’t put the burden on Black CC users having to spend the time/energy to answer some of the 101 questions that come up on this site (and to be fair) many others.
Perhaps we could also recommend that instead of asking Black users to answer those questions, refer to the reading list and/or Google is always available.
A couple of years ago I made a two sided sheet of tasks/things to think about for 1 st gen students transitioning to college. I shared on here but I don’t remember when.
If you would like me to send it to you to help in creating resources, I would be happy to.