Each year, scores of accepted students drop out before college starts. What’s behind the college ‘melt?’

Lynnsie Hagman is a first-generation college student. When she was preparing to graduate high school, she had no idea how to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a crucial step in accessing federal funds to pay for college. Then, she met her mentor at Human Services Center Mon Valley.

The local nonprofit runs a college- and career-readiness program for low-income high school seniors, which Hagman joined. Her mentor, an employee at the nonprofit, helped her finish the application, known as the FAFSA. Now 20 years old, Hagman largely credits the program for helping her enroll —  and stay — in college.

“I don’t think I would have been able to figure all that out on my own,” said Hagman, who’s studying early childhood education at Slippery Rock University.

Though the program ran during the school year, Hagman’s mentor has helped her every summer since, not only with the FAFSA she must complete each year but also with letters of recommendation for jobs and scholarships. “She always checks in to see how everything’s going,” Hagman said. “It’s very nice to have.”

If Hagman had not received support in applying for college, she may have been affected by “summer melt,” a phenomenon in which high school seniors who have accepted college offers do not enroll in the fall because of barriers they face over the summer. The problem more often impacts low-income students and those who plan to attend community college, according to Harvard University’s Strategic Data Project.

There are a variety of reasons for summer melt.

Students may miss important deadlines, receive insufficient aid or feel anxious about attending. Accepted students may feel overwhelmed by interpreting semester bills or navigating the registration process, especially if they’ve lost access to their high school counselors and lack support from other knowledgeable adults, Harvard researchers found.

Without guidance, students may fail to realize the bills they receive in July do not yet reflect their federal financial aid awards, said David LaNore, program manager for the National College Access Network. “If you don’t know how that’s going to be covered, that will absolutely freak anyone out and have anyone pull out,” he said.

This year’s bungled rollout of the revised FAFSA will likely make matters worse, LaNore said. Compared to last year, roughly 230,000 fewer high school seniors in the U.S. had completed the form by late July, and about 8,100 fewer had in Pennsylvania. “More students are going to get freaked out” by their bills, he said.

Several local nonprofits and universities are working to prevent summer melt during a year that has been full of barriers to completing the FAFSA altogether. This work matters: A college degree can be the ticket to upward mobility for many, as graduates earn more over the course of their lifetimes than those who do not have a degree.

Nonprofits work to support students

The Negro Educational Emergency Drive, or NEED, provides scholarships and college preparatory services to low-income students in the Pittsburgh area. Usually, only a small number of NEED’s students do not enroll in college, as the nonprofit is able to address the barriers that most face, said President and Chief Executive Officer Marcia Sturdivant.

Still, she’s noticed that more of her students have “melted” since the pandemic. The cost of college is their most significant barrier. Many also have part-time jobs that supplement their families’ income, she said, and feel responsible for staying and supporting them.

“Our hearts are broken when these kids can’t go on, but at least the population that we work with, if it’s between the feeling that they’re abandoning their family, or putting their family in more financial constraints, versus going to college, we’ll always choose the family,” she said.

NEED is still working with families to complete the FAFSA for the coming academic year. On top of that, the nonprofit has been providing families with estimates about the federal aid their children might receive based on their income. Sturdivant says her team has had “really robust conversations” with local universities about FAFSA-related complications in state financial aid.

The group also held a “dorm giveaway,” where incoming freshmen could pick up comforters, shower shoes and other essentials to reduce the financial burden of required on-campus living.

“Going to college, we look at it as a major milestone,” Sturdivant said. “It is a celebration, and we should celebrate. So, if you’re worried about, ‘Well I don’t have sheets, and pillowcases, and pillows, and so on,’ that really can put a damper on it. And we’re trying to take that away.”

At the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, youth coordinator Julia Beadnell estimates that about 15% of her students pivot away from attending college each summer due to financial concerns, a lack of familial support and uncertainty about the enrollment process. The nonprofit serves students across Pittsburgh but focuses on those from Garfield.

Part of her job, she said, is to help students understand the financial reality of college. She creates a chart for her students that outlines their potential tuition costs at desired schools.

While many initially say they want to attend an out-of-state historically Black college or university, she estimated that 30% of her students change course and enroll in community college.

“What I want them to understand is: Does the return on investment make sense?” she said. “I think, really, just showing them the facts is the best way, being open and honest.”

Helping students make informed financial decisions has been key to the success of the college and career preparatory program at Human Services Center Mon Valley, which Hagman attended. Leah O’Reilly, the center’s director of programs, said the nonprofit has alleviated summer melt also by forming close relationships with students that start well before the summer after high school graduation.

The preparatory program serves 155 low-income high school seniors across five school districts, with a full-time staff member assigned to each. The staff meet with students individually at least once a week during the school year, stop by their classrooms to discuss topics related to college and career readiness and maintain relationships through the summer.

“I really do think it comes down to: They need that human contact, a mentor, or somebody to help them through that process and talk it out with them and encourage them,” she said.

Universities find ways to help

Summer melt also affects universities, which want to ensure the students they’ve budgeted for show up on campus. Admissions officials at several local universities told PublicSource the problem always is top of mind this time of year. They said that connecting students with counselors and peer mentors, hosting summer events and ensuring that orientation process is personalized are helpful strategies, among others, for mitigating the problem.

Point Park University has an anti-summer-melt plan that begins the moment a student submits a deposit, said Marlin Collingwood, vice president of enrollment management. Keeping students engaged is key, he said, and Point Park sought to achieve that this year by inviting incoming students and their families to attend Picklesburgh, which the university hosted on its campus.

The university also aims to be flexible and mindful of students’ sometimes-changing needs. “We’ll get students who will say, ‘Look, I need you to relook at my financial aid package because my situation has changed. My dad’s no longer working; my parents got divorced’ — It could be a variety of different things,” Collingwood said.

“I think it’s important for those of us in higher ed to always remember that these are students, life happens to them,” he continued. “Oftentimes, none of us know what actually is going to happen over a four-month period. And sometimes it’s pretty major stuff, and we have to be prepared to help them.”

Emma Folts covers higher education at PublicSource, in partnership with Open Campus. She can be reached at emma@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Jamie Wiggan .

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