Erin Kelley grew up with parents who never went to college, but she is about to do something only 11% of Americans like her do: earn a degree.
The Boston College senior is the latest success story of Bottom Line, which counsels disadvantaged youth on how to get into college—and graduate. About 80% of the nonprofit’s clients earn a degree. And in an era of skyrocketing college costs and debate about the value of higher education, they typically leave with relatively little debt and a job waiting for them.
The work of Bottom Line, and other groups that provide intensive counseling, is increasingly being studied by academics seeking to boost the prospects of low-income, first-generation college students.
Ms. Kelley, who grew up in a small apartment in the Boston suburb of Chelsea with her parents and three sisters, said she never thought of applying to a competitive school such as Boston College until a Bottom Line counselor urged her.
After Ms. Kelley got in, her counselor helped her find scholarships and sent her care packages, including an alarm clock her first semester. She kept track of Ms. Kelley’s academic and financial standing. When the student found herself unable to afford a textbook one year, the counselor came through.
“I would not be where I am if it were not for Bottom Line,” said the 21-year-old business major, who is about to graduate with a manageable student-debt load of $21,000 and a job waiting for her. “I would not have even looked at the application. When you come from communities like Chelsea, Massachusetts, and you have parents who never went to college, they understand it’s important. But they don’t know what’s out there, so you don’t know what’s out there.”
Degrees are earned by only about 1 in 10 Americans who grew up poor—defined as a family income below $25,000—and whose parents never went to college, says the Pell Institute, a think tank focused on higher-education policy.
But new research on the work of Bottom Line suggests that an aggressive form of counseling—advising students on everything from where to apply to school to what major to choose to how much financial aid to seek—can significantly boost these students’ outcomes. Read the full article