Letters: COLLEGE, RECRUITERS AND MONEY

letters to the LA Times | http://lat.ms/1cNPToT

Students gather in college counselor Teresa Carreto's room at Roosevelt High in L.A.'s Boyle Heights, one of the area campuses receiving relatively few visits from college counselors. (Bob Chamberlin, Los Angeles Times / December 13, 2013)

RE: College recruiters give low-income public campuses fewer visits By Larry Gordon  Story | December 27, 2013 | 5:02 PM

 

January 2, 2014

My middle-class high school of 3,000 students had no college recruiters ever solicit on campus. At the time, in the late 1970s, only star athletes were ever recruited by colleges.

But education then was not the big business that it is now. Today, most colleges that actively recruit are private institutions or smaller state schools trying to boost enrollment (read: income). Private colleges and universities need students who can pay their tuition. Public schools in high-income areas have students whose families will likely write checks for their tuition and more, and pricey private high schools have students whose families already have proved they will spend big bucks on education.

There is little economic incentive for these colleges to recruit in the non-wealthy schools. It's business. After all, you don't see Mercedes dealerships or Tiffany's stores in lower-income areas.

Kathleen K. Clark
Monrovia

The 2,900 students at Palisades Charter High School, where I am a parent, are fortunate to have the services of an incredible and award-winning college center.

College representatives do not simply visit Palisades because it's located in an affluent neighborhood. The college center staff reaches out to most of these colleges and works year-round to provide exceptional services to college-bound seniors, many of whom travel two hours a day by bus.

It's disturbing to read that no one from the admissions staff at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania can take the time to visit one single school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest public school system in the country. Based on early admissions, Palisades seniors will be attending schools like Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania and other top schools. I would call that Bucknell's loss.

Ivy Sheldon Greene
Pacific Palisades

From the college recruiters' point of view, one major factor in determining which high schools to visit was overlooked in this article.

At large public schools, college counseling may be limited if not effectively absent. Thus, students are either unaware of visits by college recruiters or unable to attend these visits because of factors beyond their control. By contrast, at wealthier public schools as well as nearly every private one, college counseling is a top priority; statistics on college placements are a great recruiting tool for these schools. Thus, college visits are prioritized by counselors and teachers.

Simply put, college recruiters tend to see a much greater number of students at wealthier schools, so these visits tend to be repeated every year.

Kristina Brooks
Claremont

This article speaks volumes for what ails our society.

Just read between the lines: Class does matter, which is a sad fact.

Carlie Harris
Harbor City