College visits can be predictors of postsecondary enrollment for rural students, according to new research from a GEAR UP program in 11 rural western North Carolina school districts.
The finding lends empirical evidence to the effectiveness of an activity engaged in by many National College Attainment Network (NCAN) member programs.
The study, conducted by M. Corrine Smith, Ross M. Gosky, and Jui-Teng Li,
divides college visits into two categories: traditional and educational:
“Traditional” college visits are defined as official campus tours facilitated by admissions staff or other college departments, essentially what we typically think of when we hear “campus visits.”
“Educational” college visits were defined as district-sponsored field trips meant to expose students to a new academic experience and/or broaden their views on opportunities.
The researchers concluded that both types of visits, educational and traditional, were associated with higher postsecondary enrollment rates for rural students. Rural students with higher participation in these visits saw their likelihood of enrolling
increase. Traditional campus visits during 7th grade were most positively associated with enrollment.
Educational campus visits have the power to be predictors if they are performed early in a student’s career. This analysis
concluded that statistically significant increases in postsecondary enrollment rates occurred when students took their first traditional college visit in seventh grade, sophomore year, or senior year. For educational visits, there was a positive effect
when the visit occurred during seventh grade; other timings did not have a statistically significant impact.
The participants included the graduating high school classes of 2020 to 2023.
The paper used logistic regression
(i.e., how did different variables increase the likelihood of enrolling or not). Logistic regression uses binary outcomes as the dependent variable (i.e., did something happen, or didn’t it, and how much more likely was something to happen because
one of the variables we are considering had a change).
The 1st logistic regression used counts of college visits each year. Both traditional and educational visits had a positive association with enrollment probability in this model.
The 2nd regression added gender and race. Gender was a statistically significant predictor, with female students being more likely to enroll in postsecondary education.
The final regression focused strictly on the first cohort’s
first college visit. This allowed for an analysis of the impact of college visit timing. Adding gender to the timing analysis added nothing to statistical significance, which led the researchers to the simpler model.
There are
some questions still to be explored after this study, such as a deeper understanding of the timing piece:
Did early visits predict enrollment because it allows a student more time to visit other schools and explore?
Or did later visits also have a high estimated impact because these students are already seriously considering postsecondary pathways?
The authors were interested in exploring the number of visits as a predictor, but found it complex because of the questions above. Early visits may show careful consideration, but visits later on in an academic career may be more impactful to a student.
The authors also encouraged more research to be done on college visits and college retention.
Overall, campus visits seem to be an impactful opportunity for rural students to be exposed to different pathways and develop a college-going
mindset.
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