Project Summary

The onset of COVID-19 brought myriad challenges to educational systems and the students they serve. Our study set out to explore specifically how the pandemic influenced students’ college-going processes. Using the conceptual model of student college choice by Perna (2006) and the school counseling equity framework by Savitz-Romer and Nicola (2021), we examined students' college-going processes through the perspectives of school counselors, who are professionals uniquely positioned to speak to students' college-planning behaviors and the institutional changes that directly affect students. Findings suggest that students’ college-going and planning were directly compromised by challenges from the pandemic and indirectly by changes in their college access support landscape.

Key Findings

1. This work illustrates how the rise of COVID-19, a chrono-level factor, influenced salient micro- and exosystem actors that effect the work of counselors, and impact the college choice process for students as part of a student’s school and community context.
2. Due to the changing demands on their time and the logistical obstacles to connecting with students, counselors struggled to provide the types of college counseling support that research suggests are so important to students’ success in the college planning process.
3. Counselors’ observations of different student application and matriculation behaviors illustrates how the pandemic has altered students’ college aspirations. 
4. Counselors observed that participating in college counseling and other school activities only in a virtual format had a negative impact on the engagement and well-being of their students, leaving counselors with concerns about how students would manage the social, emotional, and academic challenges of the transition to the college environment.