College Freshmen’s Perceptions of their High School College and Career Readiness Counseling

Journal of College Access Volume 10 Issue 4 Article 4 10-30-2025 College Freshmen’s Perceptions of their High School College and Career Readiness Counseling Alexandra Novakovic DePaul University, Eva N. Patrikakou DePaul University, Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jca Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Novakovic, Alexandra and Patrikakou, Eva N. (2025) "College Freshmen’s Perceptions of their High School College and Career Readiness Counseling," Journal of College Access: Vol. 10: Iss. 4, Article 4. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jca/vol10/iss4/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Western Michigan University at ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of College Access by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact . College Freshmen’s Perceptions of their High School College and Career Readiness Counseling Cover Page Footnote Author Note Alexandra Novakovic https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4958-1307 Eva Patrikakou ORCID iD: 0009-0003-5115-4325 We have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Alexandra Novakovic, DePaul University, 2249 N. Halsted Street, Chicago, IL, 60614, United States. Email: This article is available in Journal of College Access: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jca/vol10/iss4/4 College Freshmen’s Perceptions of their High School College and Career Readiness Counseling School counselors play a crucial role in promoting college and career readiness (CCR). They support students in pursuing college and other postsecondary options and provide opportunities for them to develop skills that help them to navigate postsecondary education (ASCA, 2023a). Research indicates that more contact with a school counselor positively impacts college-going rates. Students are more likely to aspire to, enroll, and persist in college if they meet more often with their school counselor for college and career readiness counseling (Poynton & Lapan, 2017). It has been also indicated that students are more likely to persist in college and attain a postsecondary degree if they have access to a counselor who spends 21% or more of their time providing CCR counseling (Brookover & Johnson, 2022). In addition, students who meet with their school counselor for college planning are more likely to enroll in two- or four-year institutions (Tang & Ng, 2019). While research demonstrates that frequency of meetings with the school counselor positively affects a number of postsecondary outcomes such as college enrollment, there is a dearth of studies examining student perceptions of frequency and helpfulness of CCR counseling, especially of college freshmen, who have successfully navigated the college-going process. In their study on frequency of meetings with the school counselor and CCR-related topics, Poynton & Lapan (2017) found that a higher frequency of meetings related to applying to college was positively associated with 12th grade students’ college aspirations and persistence, but a higher frequency of meetings about social emotional issues was associated with lower aspirations, enrollment, and retention. They also found that students who met more frequently with counselors on creating career and educational direction were more likely to persist into sophomore year at the same college they had enrolled in their freshman year. Further study is warranted to understand students’ perceptions of how CCR counseling helped them navigate the college-going process, so that school counselors can provide more targeted and effective CCR counseling to students. Background Variables Differences in college enrollment based on family socioeconomc status ( SES), first-generation status, gender, race, and academic achievement continue to be documented in the United States. School counselors provide students with valuable resources, information, and support to all students; and they seek to close opportunity gaps in college enrollment among various demographic groups that exist in the United States. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) position statement on school counselor and career development recommends that school counselors identify gaps in college and career access, and address biases related to college and career advising and counseling (ASCA, 2023a). Research on school counselors and CCR counseling often focuses on the influence of CCR counseling on disparities in enrollment and retention rates among various demographic subgroups. When considering the impact of CCR, and any other kind of school counseling, it is important to also factor in variables that have been indicated to have a significant impact on high-school student perceptions, as well as learning outcomes. Low Income and First-Generation Students CCR counseling has been shown to be particularly important for low-income and first-generation students who are at a significant disadvantage regarding college enrollment. Among those who were enrolled in postsecondary education in 2016, there was a 50 percentage-point gap between low socioeconomic status (SES) (28%) and higher SES (78%) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). In addition, first-generation students were found to be more likely to attend two-year or for-profit institutions than the national average and incur more debt paying for their education (Postsecondary National Policy Institute, 2022). Furthermore, a lack of adequate CCR counseling has a particularly negative effect for low income and first-generation students, who have a greater reliance on school counselors for support in pursuing higher education (Avery, 2010; Belasco, 2013). Given that first-generation students more frequently indicated that their school counselor was most influential in their thinking about postsecondary education (Cholewa et al., 2015), the inclusion of low-income and first-generation status is not only important to enhance the internal validity of a statistical investigation, but also for best informing and improving CCR practices. Gender and Race Another cluster of variables that have a significant impact on college-going, involve gender- and race-related factors. Disparities in college enrollment continue to exist in the United States among racial and gender groups. Specifically, college enrollment rates for 18–24-year-olds in 2021 within each racial group were 60% for Asians, 38% for Whites, 37% for Blacks and 33% for Hispanics (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Additionally, Black, Latino, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native undergraduates attend four-year institutions at lower rates than White and Asian American students (Lo & Dancy, 2023). It is important to note that since 2010, the college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds has been higher for females than for males (National Cente (...truncated)