Fewer Fort Worth students went to college during COVID pandemic. Is tide starting to turn?
When Karina Torres tore open an envelope earlier this year and found her acceptance letter from TCU, she wept for joy.
Torres, who was then a senior at Marine Creek Collegiate High School in the Fort Worth school district, had dreamed for years about going to TCU. She visited the campus several times when she was younger and knew it was where she wanted to be. But the university always seemed out of reach, she said. She thought she might have to go school somewhere farther from home or start at a community college.
In the fall, Torres will begin her freshman year at TCU, where she plans to major in social work. Getting to college will be the culmination of a lot of hard work, not only by Torres, but also by teachers and school counselors who helped along the way, she said. When she starts school in the fall, Torres will be the first person in her family to go to college. Although her parents supported her college dreams, they didn’t know how to help her navigate college applications and complicated financial aid paperwork. So Kierney Buchanan, a college and career readiness coach at Marine Creek, sat down with her and walked her through each step of filling out her financial aid application.
“I could not have done it without her,” Torres said.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts across Texas and nationwide have seen fewer of their graduating seniors go on to college. Job losses affected families’ ability to afford tuition, and with school buildings shut down, counselors struggled to reach students to help them handle college applications, essays and financial aid paperwork. But after a full school year with students back in person, there are hopeful signs that the trend may be reversing.
Remote learning left Fort Worth graduate feeling disengaged
Growing up, Torres always knew she’d go to college someday. Her parents moved to Fort Worth from Monterrey, Mexico. They came to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Torres knew sending their children to college and seeing them go on to pursue careers was a big part of her parents’ dream.
But staying engaged in school during remote learning was hard, Torres said. Through the pandemic, she was enrolled in classes at Tarrant County College through her high school. Those classes required essays on top of essays, she said, and without the social aspects of school, it was hard to stay motivated.
But the next year, when graduation was approaching, Torres was able to return to school in person. That meant her counselor could sit next to her and show her exactly how to fill out her financial aid application. That in-person contact was important, Torres said. There were several questions on the form that she had to skip, and she doubts she would have known to leave them blank if her counselor hadn’t been there to point it out.
Undergrad enrollment declined at onset of COVID-19
Nationwide, undergraduate enrollment dipped by 6.6% between the fall semester of 2019 and the fall semester of 2021, according to a report released in January by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That was a decline of just over 1 million students, according to the nonprofit.
In a statement, Doug Shapiro, the research center’s executive director, said would-be undergraduates sat out “in droves” as colleges and universities struggled to navigate another year of the pandemic. Shapiro predicted the long-term economic consequences, both for the students themselves and the nation.
“Without a dramatic re-engagement in their education, the potential loss to these students’ earnings and futures is significant, which will greatly impact the nation as a whole in years to come,” Shapiro said.
But there are signs that college enrollment rates may be on the rebound. In March, Common App released a report showing 14.4% growth in the number of students across the country submitting college applications by March 15, compared to the same point two years earlier. But Texas was well ahead of the national average: the Lone Star State saw a 41% increase in the number of students applying to college compared to the same point in 2020, according to the report. Texas was second only to South Carolina, which saw a 61% uptick in college applicants, according to the report.
Fort Worth schools post uptick in FAFSA filings
Fort Worth school district officials said they won’t know how many of their recent graduates will go on to enroll in college until the fall semester begins. But there are hopeful signs locally, as well: the number of graduating seniors in the Fort Worth school district who completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, climbed over the past year.
By May 20, an estimated 55-59% of the district’s graduating seniors had completed the FAFSA, according to an analysis of federal data by the nonprofit National College Attainment Network. The same time last year, that figure was 40-44%.
Typically, an uptick in financial aid applications indicates that more students plan to go to college, said Bill deBaun, the nonprofit’s director of data and strategic initiatives. But this year’s numbers come with a big caveat: In 2019, Texas lawmakers enacted a requirement that all students fill out the form before graduating from high school, whether they plan to enroll in college or not. That requirement, which was included in House Bill 3, a massive overhaul of the state’s education finance system, took effect with this year’s graduating class.
That’s a good policy, deBaun said, because it gets conversations about college started earlier and makes more students aware of their options. But it also makes it more difficult to tell which students filled out the form because they plan to go to college and which did so because they were required to, he said.
Still, deBaun said any uptick in FAFSA completions is a good thing. More students filling out the application means more students finding out how much financial aid they’re eligible for, which, for some students, could mean the difference between going to college and not, he said. So even if an increase in FAFSA filings doesn’t by itself indicate that more students are planning to go to college, policies that encourage more students to fill out the form may mean more students end up there, he said.
FAFSA completions up nationwide
If Fort Worth and Texas did see an increase in the number of students planning to go to college after high school, it would be in line with a national trend, deBaun said. After a national decline in college-going at the beginning of the pandemic, high school seniors’ college-going patterns are beginning to shift back toward how they looked before the pandemic, he said.
By May 27, 4.7% more graduating seniors had completed the FAFSA than the same time the previous year. That may not seem like a sharp uptick, but the increase was most pronounced in high schools with high rates of poverty and large concentrations of Black and Hispanic students. Those student groups typically need the most support navigating pre-college milestones like applications and financial aid paperwork, deBaun said, so an increase in FAFSA completions among those students is an encouraging sign.
Part of the reason for that shift could be that high school seniors are getting better information than they did during school shutdowns, deBaun said. Students get most of their advising about college applications and financial aid paperwork from their counselors at school, he said. For two years, schools struggled to deliver academic instruction to their students, let alone college readiness support, he said. But now, with schools reopened in person, more students are getting the help they need to stay on track for college, he said.
DeBaun said it’s important for students to know that it isn’t too late to fill out the form in time for the fall semester.
Fort Worth school counselors get creative
Jessica Alaniz, the Fort Worth district’s high school counseling coordinator, said counselors had to get creative to reach students while schools were shut down. The district hosted virtual FAFSA completion nights and college bootcamps, where counselors walked students and their parents through how to complete college applications, how to apply for financial aid and how to figure out which college was the best fit. They hosted virtual office hours to meet with students and parents via Zoom to make sure they understood what they needed to get done. They also made phone calls, sent out email blasts and made heavy use of social media to try to remind students about upcoming college readiness milestones.
But once students and counselors were back at school in person, it became easier for counselors to stay in regular contact with students, Alaniz said. It also became easier for the counseling department to collaborate with other departments in the district, as well as partner organizations like the Tarrant To and Through (T3) Partnership, she said. Although the district won’t know how many of its recent graduates went on to college for a couple of months, Alaniz said she’s hopeful that the district will not only be able to reverse the downward trend in college going, but also move beyond where it stood before the pandemic.
Navigating college application process is a challenge
Torres, the Marine Creek graduate, said her college plans aren’t only a major milestone for her. She has cousins who questioned whether a college education was possible for them. Now that they’ve seen her get accepted to her dream school and get the financial aid package she needs, it seems more attainable for them, as well, she said. She feels as though she’s paving the way for others in her family.
The hardest part, Torres said, has been figuring out how to navigate the process. Her parents had never done it before, so they didn’t have any more information than she did. That meant she had to be the one to step up, ask questions and figure it all out for herself. It was a challenge, she said, but she’s proud of how she handled it.
“It really gave me the confidence to do things for myself,” Torres said. “I wouldn’t trade that.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
