Dr. Lawrence Hernandez serves as CEO of Admissions Geek, which offers advisory services to a wide range of undergraduate and graduate school applicants. Dr. Lawrence Hernandez’s goals include making higher education more accessible and helping students secure substantial funding for their education.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in which college enrollment has declined steeply, these goals are particularly vital. Those graduating from high schools in low-income districts have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, with just 46 percent of graduates in 2020 going on to college in the fall. This was down from 51.5 percent of graduates enrolling in college in 2019. By contrast, high-income schools sent 70 percent of graduates to college in 2020, representing only a 2.6 percent decline from the previous year.
Factors in this disparity included unequal access to broadband Internet and the resources that make remote learning possible. In addition, both the health and economic impacts of the pandemic were more significant among Latinx and Black communities, with many recent graduates taking on caregiving and work responsibilities to support their families.
With personalized college guidance important from an early stage, low-resource high schools are seeking ways to address the widening gap. One recommendation is to allow students to receive tutoring or repeat their grade, if necessary, as a way of enabling them to catch up on missed lessons.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in which college enrollment has declined steeply, these goals are particularly vital. Those graduating from high schools in low-income districts have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, with just 46 percent of graduates in 2020 going on to college in the fall. This was down from 51.5 percent of graduates enrolling in college in 2019. By contrast, high-income schools sent 70 percent of graduates to college in 2020, representing only a 2.6 percent decline from the previous year.
Factors in this disparity included unequal access to broadband Internet and the resources that make remote learning possible. In addition, both the health and economic impacts of the pandemic were more significant among Latinx and Black communities, with many recent graduates taking on caregiving and work responsibilities to support their families.
With personalized college guidance important from an early stage, low-resource high schools are seeking ways to address the widening gap. One recommendation is to allow students to receive tutoring or repeat their grade, if necessary, as a way of enabling them to catch up on missed lessons.
