California Sees Steep Decline in Financial Aid Applications

COURTESY OF: PPIC.org The deadline to complete financial aid applications for fall 2021 passed last week, and preliminary data suggest that many California high school graduates may miss out on funding that helps provide access to college. Financial aid applications especially important for supporting college enrollment among low-income and other underrepresented students, including African Americans and Latinos. While the COVID-19 …

Pandemic Has Changed Main Challenges of School Counselors

COURTESY OF: TheJournal.com For once, the number of students an individual school counselor is responsible for advising wasn’t the overwhelming choice when they were asked to examine their day-to-day challenges. Many more school counselors responded that the big obstacles were getting access to students in a virtual environment (cited by 68 percent) and providing counseling and lessons to students in …

Financial aid applications lag among California high school seniors

COURTESY OF: EdSource Applications drop off especially among low-income students. With just a couple of weeks to go before the state filing deadline, far fewer California high school students have completed college financial aid applications than is typical. Applications from students age 18 and under are down from previous years. As of Feb 15, only 314,855 students under age 18 completed …

UC to Launch Its First Bachelor’s Program in Prison

COURTESY OF: KQED News UC Irvine and the state prison system have reached a deal to create the first University of California bachelor’s degree program behind bars. Since California opened the door for community colleges to teach in prisons in 2014, some 2,000 incarcerated men and women across the state have earned associate degrees, said Brant Choate, director of rehabilitative …

‘Losing A Generation’: Fall College Enrollment Plummets For 1st-Year Students

COURTESY OF: NPR News All throughout high school, Brian Williams planned to go to college. But as the pandemic eroded the final moments of his senior year, the Stafford, Texas, student began to second-guess that plan. “I’m terrible at online school,” Williams says. He was barely interested in logging on for his final weeks of high school; being online for …

Navigating the transition between K-12 and higher education – virtually

COURTESY OF: CAL MATTERS Throughout October and November, hundreds of thousands of high school seniors from every part of the state take the first step toward realizing their academic and professional goals by applying to a California State University campus. In this new COVID-19 reality, too many students will have to navigate the transition between K-12 and higher education virtually, …