Published by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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In a national survey conducted this spring, one in six high-school seniors who before the pandemic expected to attend a four-year college full time said that they will choose a different path this fall. A majority expected either to take a gap year or enroll part time in a bachelor’s program (35 percent each), while smaller percentages planned to work or attend a community college.
In Florida, where the outbreak decimated the hospitality and retail sectors, one in four parents of high-school juniors and seniors reported that their child had changed their plans, a separate survey found.
As with many effects of this pandemic, the phenomenon is hitting people of color the hardest. More than 40 percent of minority high-school seniors have said it’s very likely they won’t go to college in the fall, or that it's too soon to say, compared with 24 percent of white seniors.
That troubles advocates like Nicole Hurd, who worry the pandemic will undo years of progress in raising college enrollment and completion rates among low-income students and students of color.
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