What 519 high school students say.
Last month, BetterGrads held a series of seven “College 101″ presentations and panel discussions at Granada High School, in Livermore, CA. Over the course of two days, our five peer advisors spoke to over 600 students and parents. We administered pre- and post-presentation surveys, meant to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs and identify disparities between students of different backgrounds in their college-going resources and preparedness. As BetterGrads seeks to serve students from all backgrounds and circumstances, we must be acutely aware of the divergent needs of different students. These surveys are an initial attempt towards that endeavor.
As an exclusive for our blog readers, we’d like to share some of the early findings from the post-presentation surveys. Four-hundred and ninety-four freshmen responded (of the 570 or so we addressed through the innovative Freshmen In Transition (F.I.T.) program). The remainder of the survey responses came from students who attended our two panel discussions at College Night, which involved 11th graders and their parents.
Recommending BetterGrads…
- Of the nearly 500 freshmen surveyed who attended our presentation as part of the mandatory F.I.T. program, 90.5% said they would recommend it to others.
- Of the 25 juniors surveyed who attended our panel discussions as part of the voluntary College Night programs, 100% said they would recommend it to others.
- Of the 44 students total (7.4%) who said they WOULD NOT recommend our presentations, the average level of interest in going to college was 7.6 out of 10 (with 10 being highest).
- Of the 427 students total (92.6%) who said they WOULD recommend our presentations, the average level of interest in going to college was 8.8 out of 10.
As might be expected, a strong correlation exists between a students’ interest in going to college and their parents’ highest level of education.
- The average level of interest in going to college was 9.1 out of 10 for students whose parents’ highest level of education was an Advanced Degree.
- The average level of interest in going to college was 9.1 out of 10 for students whose parents’ highest level of education was a Bachelor’s Degree.
- The average level of interest in going to college was 8.3 out of 10 for students whose parents’ highest level of education was an Associate’s Degree.
- The average level of interest in going to college was 8.3 out of 10 for students whose parents’ highest level of education was Some College.
- The average level of interest in going to college was 8.2 out of 10 for students whose parents’ highest level of education was a High School Diploma.
- The average level of interest in going to college was 7.8 out of 10 for students whose parents’ highest level of education was less than a High School Diploma.
In the coming weeks we will explore the data further to see if gender or ethnicity correlates to students’ interest in going to college, as well as factor in the pre-presentation surveys. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the above findings. Any surprises? Lessons to be learned? Other relationships to consider?
A special thanks to Andrew Rogier, a business associate with BetterGrads, for his diligent work coding, entering, and performing preliminary analyses of the surveys.
