Eight isn't enough for college
Is it too early for eighth-graders to start planning for college? Or too late?
Educators lean toward the latter.
Most eight-graders say they want to go to college, "but they have no clue how to get there," said Ann Coles, a college planning specialist.
Boston, however, is at the forefront of the early awareness movement, which seeks to direct students to focus sooner on college, said Robert Clagett, dean of admissions at Middlebury College in Vermont and the former director of an early educational awareness program at Harvard University.
In the early 1990s, Boston was the first US city to launch early awareness programs for middle-schoolers, said Coles. The city also was one of the first to receive federal grants to establish Gear Up projects, which help low-income students prepare for college and involve partnerships between public schools and such institutions as Harvard and Lesley University.
But most programs reach small numbers of students, said Coles, who added that some Boston public schools will begin to incorporate college awareness into their middle school curriculums next year.
Last month, eighth-graders got a taste of what it takes to prepare for college during "Get Ready for College Day, sponsored by TERI, The Education Resources Institute, a nonprofit agency that promotes educational opportunities. The event at the Mildred Middle School in Mattapan featured presentations by education advisers, college admissions and financial aid officers, and college students, many of whom were the first in their families to attend college.
Standing before a group of about 50 eighth-graders at the event, Patrice Molin said she never thought about applying to college until her junior year at Brockton High School, when her father died. "He was big on college," said Molin, 19, now a sophomore at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill. "I wanted him to look down on me and say, 'That's my baby girl.' "
While it's not unusual for students to delay college planning until the 11th grade, "It's rare that it all came together the way that it did for her," Clagett said. But, he added, "trying to reach these students as 11th- and 12th-graders is far, far too late."
Coles, who founded TERI's College Planning Centers, went even further. Asked whether eighth grade is the right age for learning about college planning, she said, "I think even earlier would be better."
She noted that the city's exam schools - Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science - begin in the seventh grade.
Unlike, say, 12th-graders, "eighth-graders still have a chance to make good choices," said Shamikhah Dean, associate director of admissions at Boston University.
Leaving the presentation in Mattapan, eighth-graders Vanessa Bertrand, 14, and Anyssa Black, 13, said they were inspired.
"It just makes me want to work harder," said Bertrand, who lives in Hyde Park. "I want to be something big," either "a doctor that delivers babies" or an architect.
Over lunch in the cafeteria, a group of teenage boys said they learned "sports is not everything."
Kyle Jimenz-Fox, 14, of Dorchester, said, "Before, I was just thinking about being a basketball player and going to the NBA." But after the presentation, he said, "I'm starting to think I should be thinking about my education, so I have something to fall back on."
Celia Richa, now a senior at Boston University, said she always loved school and didn't let anything stand in her way, including tuition. A graduate of Boston Latin School, she said neither of her parents, who were born in Lebanon, graduated from high school. And money in her family was tight.
"I looked everywhere" for scholarships, the 21-year-old told her audience. "No one's going to give you $2,000 for looking cute today. You have to work hard. Each and every one of you can come up with a different excuse, and I'll shoot each and every one down. There are no excuses whatsoever," Richa said. "None."
