For many, college still inaccessible

Data released in mid-January from the Ohio Department of Education confirmed what many education officials have long known: Money and access to it can have a direct relationship to whether students attend college.

The data shows that wealthier school districts send nearly twice as many students to college as those districts with high poverty rates.

A recent analysis by the Ohio School Boards Association and others pegged the college-bound rates for the poorest districts at 44 percent while those districts with the lowest levels of poverty sent 83 percent of their students to college.

That same trend was evident in the Mahoning Valley where only 44 percent of the 2014 graduating class of Youngstown City Schools and 40 percent of Warren City Schools were enrolled in college within two years of graduating from high school. Nearly all of the students who attend Youngstown and Warren schools come from such poverty that they qualify for free lunches, but in Howland, where only 39 percent qualifies for free lunches, 66 percent were in college.

The same pattern holds true for Boardman, where 32 percent of the students qualified for free lunch and 72 percent of its graduates were in college two years after graduating from high school. Poland, with 15 percent of its students receiving free lunches, had 82 percent in college. And Lakeview, with 28 percent getting free lunches, had 72 percent in college.

These figures are another reminder about the importance of developing strategies that will encourage people to seek post-secondary educations.

One of the main reasons why students don’t attend college after high school is financial. Many fear they cannot afford it.

Paying for college can be enormously expensive and for some, it will be the second biggest purchase of their lives, just behind a home.

There are numerous steps students can take for making college more affordable:

Try to get some college credit while still in high school

Complete the FAFSA as soon as possible

Apply for scholarships

We’ve all heard the stories of the child geniuses who manage to graduate from college before many of us graduate from high school. I remember a high school classmate who was awarded a college Associate’s Degree before the rest of us received our high school diplomas. That was rare in the 1980s, but today, there are numerous ways to earn college credit while still in high school.

Taking college courses while still in high school will reduce students’ tuition bills and establish strong academic grounding. Ohio schools are required to offer college-in-high school options at no cost to families; the program is called College Credit Plus. Additional information can be found at: https://www.ohiohighered.org/ccp.

Students should fill out the FAFSA as early as possible so that they know exactly how much aid for which they are eligible. The FAFSA, which can be found at www.fafsa.gov, will also explain work-study options that might allow students to get hired at their college or university.

Once students have completed the FAFSA, they can begin looking for scholarships. Numerous high schools and universities have local, state and national scholarships indexed on their websites. Many scholarships are not awarded because students do not apply.

Once students have exhausted scholarship opportunities, they can begin exploring grants and loans. Numerous sites explain the difference, including, https://www.scholarships.com/resources/parents-practical-guide-to-college/parents-guide-to-college-financial-aid/loans-vs-grants-vs-scholarships/

Stephanie Shaw is the director of Eastern Ohio Educational Partnership.