Running head: COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

College Choice Analysis paper

Loyola University Chicago
Alyscia Raines

2
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

In his highly regarded book, Tearing down the Gates, Peter Sacks, an author and social critic,
examines and critiques the American education system. In chapter 7, he outlines the ways in
which a students collegiate future is dependent on the many instances of social stratification
based on socioeconomic status in America. He says, An individual's opportunity to even play
the game [of college enrollment] is preordained long before an application reaches the admission
office, to iterate the point that college admissions today is not just based on meritocracy,
intelligence and capacity, there are many factors including a student's parents educational status,
profession and income, location of high school and its resources, among many other influences
and factors (Sacks, 2007, p. 130). This paper will highlight my personal experiences in making
my college choice, while also incorporating literature on college choice including the college
choice model and literature explicating various factors that influence many students as they
prepare to attend college.
The Literature
Since the first college choice theory emerged in 1976, many theorists have written theories
both complex and simplistic to explain why students choose to go to college, when that decision
occurs and how they go about making their selections. Perhaps the most cited and widely used
college choice theory was written by Don Hossler and Karen Symms Gallagher, written in 1987
(Bergeson, 2009). Their three staged model indicates predisposition, search and choice as the
three steps involved in the process for a high school student to select and enroll into a higher
learning institution. Utilizing the three stages mentioned above, the following content in this
paper will highlight my own experiences with how I chose the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign.
Predisposition

3
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

The first stage of Hossler and Gallaghers model is predisposition, which describes the
thoughts and expectations a student may have about attending college. If I close my eyes and try
to imagine the first day I thought about college, and whether or not I would attend, I cannot
pinpoint the exact day, moment, or rationale. What I can remember is that college was never an
option. I always knew that I would go and it was never presented as something I had a choice in
the matter.
I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, living in various neighborhoods of the north sides of the city.
My mother was a single parent of myself and my two younger brothers. She worked hard, and
did all she could to ensure that her children were well provided for. Because my mother had me,
her first child, at the tender age of nineteen, I can remember her working during the day and then
going to class late at night. She was a nontraditional student, meaning that she had not gone to
college directly after high school, but due to various life circumstances, she went at another time.
My mother attended Truman College, then Harold Washington College, both junior colleges in
the City of Chicago Community College network, before she ended her collegiate career at
Loyola University Chicago, earning her Bachelors Degree in Political Science and a minor in
Black World Studies.
On the day of her graduation, I was a sophomore in high school and I remember being so
proud of my mom for finally finishing her goal, but at the same time wanting to maintain my
own two year perfect attendance record. So I went to school, attended two periods of classes and
then went to pick my brothers up after my geometry class so we could watch our mother walk
across the stage. When we finally made it there, it was me and my two younger brothers in the
crowd. Most of the other graduates had higher amounts of families and friends tightly packed
into gentile Arena. But for my mom, the people who were there were the people who had been

4
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

there the entire time, her kids. We were all each other had and so it was quite normal for us to
travel is such a small group.
That day as I saw my mother walk across the stage, tears fell down from my eyes because I
remembered all of the times she stayed up all night writing papers, just too barely get any sleep
and head out to work the following morning. I remembered when she had to skip her final class
and get a W marking in her course when either of her children got sick. I remembered all of
the many baby-sitters we had to have because we did not have any family in Chicago. I also
remembered the times when my mom could not find childcare for us and we had to go to class
with her, often sitting in the student lounge or in the back of the class if the professor allowed.
And with all of those memories, which still affect me greatly to this day, proud was not even a
word that could begin describe the feelings I had toward my mother and her accomplishment that
day.
I do not know when it happened, but I knew I would go to college, just like my mom, to dare I
say it, be better than my mom. I saw college as a challenge, a challenge that presented many
hurdles for my mother, but one she would always tell me was well worth the struggle. I knew
that I absolutely had to go straight from high school to college and that I would not take any
breaks in between, after all, my mother would tell me, If you take a break, you will get
comfortable and it will take you 10 years to get your degree like it did for me. Well I certainly
did not want that. So, you see, I had to go to college.
To illustrate the experiences I have shared above regarding predisposition to college, Bergeson
(2009) states, Numerous factors influence students college predisposition, including family
socioeconomic status, parental involvement, peers, high school teachers and counselors,
interactions with higher education institutions, high school involvement, and the relative value

5
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

placed on attending college (p. 22). My mother's enrollment in college while she raised my
exposed me to what it meant to go to college. Her nontraditional college student status motivated
me to believe that I may be more successful and have less difficulty by attending college directly
after high school. At the time, somewhere in grammar school when I first knew, I did not know
what I would study, where I would attend, or how my education would be financed; all I knew
was that I was going to college.

Search
The summer before my sophomore year of high school, I can remember being in Ohio at my
dads house on a sunny day. Most of the neighborhood kids my age were riding their bikes
outside, or playing jump rope near their parents garages, but not me. I was in my father's home
office, researching college majors, LSAT requirements, careers that made lofty salaries and
gazing the top ranking lists of colleges provided by the US New and World Report. I was looking
to solidify what career I would want to have and use that information to decide upon a major and
ultimately a college to attend in the following year.
My father only attended Junior College for one semester and my mother did not enroll into
college until years after she graduated high school. So neither of my parents could really help me
in my college search. But I was motivated and excited to scour websites such as the Princeton
Review and U.S. New and World Report to find a college that would best suit me. In the end, I
did not necessarily find a dreams cool, but I did begin to narrow down a list of factors that would
be important to me at whatever school I chose. I learned that I liked large institutions that had a
diverse student population. As I began to look through student demographic profiles at potential
colleges, I found that not many Black students were accounted for. For most schools, I was lucky

6
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

to find something with even at least 5% of their student population being Black students.
Additionally I narrowed down locations to the Midwest and East Coast. I was not really
interested in small liberal arts colleges, but I tried to give them a fair chance before ruling them
out. Lastly, I also looked at schools that were ranked to be the most selective, for I figured that
those would be the schools to increase my chances of being admitted to law school, I was already
thinking four years ahead!
By the end of that summer before my junior year I had identified a list of characteristics for
my dream school. I had also applied for over thirty scholarships, both private and public,
anywhere I could find them. I wrote so many essays that summer that I felt like I was still in
school. But I didn't mind because I knew that hard work would be an investment into my own
future.
Choice
Hossler and Gallagher end their three step college choice theory with the choice stage. I began
to apply to colleges during my senior year. My decisions about where to apply were influenced
by many factors. In total, I applied to fourteen different colleges and universities. Some of those
institutions included University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, Northwestern University,
Syracuse University, New York University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Pace University,
Howard University, Princeton and Harvard. This list exemplifies that wide arrange of institution
types that I was looking at. Within my list were institutions from the Midwest and the East Coast
regions. I had grown up in Chicago, but was born in upstate New York, with family still in that
East Coast region. I did not have to necessarily be in the same city as family, but I at least wanted
to be within short distance. Another observation about my choice of institutions is that they were
a mixture of Predominately White Institutions (PWIs), such as Northwestern University,

7
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

Historically Black Colleges and Universities, such as Howard University, colleges with
outstanding athletic programs such as Syracuse University and Ivy League Institutions such as
Harvard and Princeton. My reason for applying to such a wide variety of institution was much
related to what Bergeson writes in his text about student achievement.
In chapter of his book, Bergeson (2009) states Students with higher levels of academic
achievement have more postsecondary options, have more access to information about higher
education and tend to attend higher-prestige institutions (p. 30). I did maintain a 3.89 GPA while
in high school, was active in two sports, and obtained leadership positions in multiple clubs and
organizations. It would seem that just like the quote above stated above by Bergeson. However, I
had very low test scores. I took the ACT twice and got a 22 each time. I took an AP exam for my
AP Government and US Politics class; I only scored a 2, which does not grant college credit. I
even took the SAT and also got a low score on that standardized test as well. I applied to so many
institutions because I was worried that admissions counselors would see my low test scores and
not find me as a suitable collegiate candidate. I figured the more schools I applied to, the greater
my chances being that someone would accept me.
Lastly the other major factor influencing my choice of schools to apply to was financial
reason. In their book, The Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management, authors Hossler and
Bontrager (2015) cite family income and socioeconomic status as the strongest predictors of
college choice (p. 53). My mother could not afford to pay for application fees so I was only able
to apply to colleges that had fee waivers available. Luckily for me, twelve of the fourteen
institutions that I applied to were done via the Common Application. The Common Application
had one universal fee waiver form to utilize that could be applied to each of the partnering
institutions. It and things so easy!

8
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

As the spring of my senior year rolled around, so did the acceptance letters. I got into ten out
of the fourteen schools that I applied to; I was not accepted into any of the Ivy League or top tier
schools, such as Northwestern University, that I had applied to. From there it all came down to
making the choice of what school would offer the most financial aid. The University of Illinois
was a frontrunner since I had visited their campus three times and loved it with each and every
tour. My mother also liked the school because it was only two hours from home, so she would
not have to be too far from her first born. Syracuse, University of Illinois at Howard University
each gave me large amounts of financial aid, and after completing my FAFSA, my Expected
Family Contribution (EFC) was so low that money was no longer an issue when picking an
institution. So because I had only been to visit one out of the three, I chose the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and it was honestly one of the best decisions I have ever made. I
gained valuable professional development experience, met lifelong friends, was exposed to
content around race and class that I had never seen or heard of before, along with many other
developments.
Recommendations
I currently have a younger brother who is fourteen years old and a freshman in high school.
Over the weekend I sat with him and asked him if anyone at school talks to his grade level about
college. No, he responded, they only talk about college with the upperclassmen. My brother
Darian is in the honors program at his high school, but unfortunately his grades were not looking
so well after his first quarter. By the end of second quarter, he is at a C average. Darian struggle
in school with a short attention span and for some reason in following through to get assignments
done. We have always had this issue with him. I have tried, my mom has tried, all of us, trying to
help him understand that without good grades, he will not make it into the college of his

9
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

choosing. I know he has the desire, and the ambition to go on to college, but he seems to be
lacking the ability to follow-through.
In conversation with my mom, it seems to be best to take Darian out of his current school,
although it is well respected, has a great athletic program, and he is in the honors program. My
mom plans to let him stay at his current school until the end of the school year and then allow
him to transfer to a charter school, particularly within the Noble Network of charter schools.
Noble has a reputation for being very disciplined and rigid in their policies, conduct and
expectations, but they also carry great reputations for sending their students to college. Darian
needs to be at a school like Noble that will give him detentions if he doesn't finish his homework.
He needs to be required to stay after school and work with his teachers like is required at Noble
schools. Darian's needs a school that starts having conversations with students beginning in their
freshman year of high school about going to college and what it will take to gain admission.
Noble schools make their hallways and classrooms with banners form colleges that their staff has
attended. And the teachers speak with the students about their own collegiate experiences and
provide support for the high school students.
You may be wondering why I sound so keen on the idea of my brother transferring to a charter
school when I myself didn't even attend one. Well, I had a very positive experience at my magnet
public high school, but it was very rigorous and challenging, which only motivated me to work
harder. My brother is different, eh requires more time and attention, and even discipline to keep
him in line. My husband Gerald works as a Disciplinarian at a Noble Charter school and I have
been able to witness the success of their specific style with their students. In the end, I want what
is best for my brother and I want him to be able to have the same opportunities to enroll and
attend college, just like I had. So I am prepared to contribute to a collectivist model, much like as

10
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

described by Yosso (2005) to stimulate Darian cultural capital by means of lending my own
knowledge, experiences, and that of others who care for him such as my mother and husband.
Conclusion
Upon first looking the college choice model, it appears as a pretty simplistic process. With
three stages of predisposition, search and finally choice, there seems to be a pretty basic process
a student needs to follow in order to attain a higher learning institution. For the most part, the
steps are very comprehensive and are accurate to what most students experience, and certainly I
can say that those three steps define how I came to choose the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. However the model does not account for the other factors that may influence or
even hide restaurants from being able to gain access to college. For me my household income,
family structure, test scores, and many other factors were largely influential about what
information I had access to and what resources I had along the way to finally make a decision.
As with most other models. It is important for those using the college access model to keep in
mind that it should be utilized as a guiding framework, but not a prescriptive framework that
accounts for the experience of all students.

11
COLLEGE CHOICE ANALYSIS PAPER

References
Bergeson, A. A. (2009). College choice and access to college: Moving policy, research, and
practice to the 21st century. ASHE Higher Education Report, 35(4), 1-141.
Hossler, D. & Bontrager, B (2015). Handbook of strategic enrollment management. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sacks, P. (2007). Tearing down the gates: Confronting the class divide in American education.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Yosso, T. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community
cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91.