5 Easy Steps for Helping Students Make It to College

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In just a few short weeks, about 3.5 million students will graduate from high school, and by this fall, an estimated 2 million-plus will matriculate at colleges nationwide. Another 1 million graduates will have non-collegiate postsecondary plans, including military service, apprenticeships, full-time employment, and gap years. This post is focused on the remaining half-million young adults who intend to go to college but won't do so this year. Known as the "summer melt," this phenomenon occurs when young adults' motivation to attend college "melts away" during the transitional summer between high school and college.

"Summer melt" has numerous causes.

Unexpected circumstances arise that force some students to put their education on hold. Some will find that they haven't secured enough financial aid or saved enough money to afford college. Others still question whether college is the best option at this time—due to unclear life goals, self-doubt, or attractive alternatives. But one pernicious cause of summer melt that should never deter a student from seeking higher education is the simple fact that making it to college is a long, confusing, and frustrating process, especially for those without expert guidance.

Consider the many boxes a student must check off in order to matriculate. On the financial side, there's FAFSA completion and verification, accepting financial aid, and applying for loans. Academically, students may have to schedule and complete placement exams, meet with an advisor, and enroll in classes. For many, there are housing applications, health insurance forms, and vaccinations to report and/or acquire. That's already 11 tasks with various deadlines and myriad steps involved in each—and I'm sure I've missed a lot!

A five-step process for effective goal setting

How can we support students in accomplishing all of these tasks? One strategy comes from the science of goal achievement. Based on years of research, with a special nod to the work of Gabriele Oettingen, I've outlined a five-step procedure for creating thoughtful, detailed, and effective plans that students follow through to completion. To help remember the five steps, I think of the "ABC²S" of goal setting: aspirations, benefits, challenges, contingencies, and specifics. Research has shown that the "ABC²S" of goal setting can increase study time, class attendance, and academic performance, as well as change non-academic behaviors such as exercise, unhealthy eating, and smoking.

• Aspirations. The first step is to identify students' goals. One key is to help students chunk their aspirations into tangible and manageable actions. A goal such as "get into college" is too large and abstract to build a cohesive plan, but "submit my transcript" or "review the course catalog" are direct and concrete. Research shows that subdividing that larger aspiration into smaller chunks helps to negate the planning fallacy (i.e., underestimating how long each step will take), thus improving time management and on-time completion.
• Benefits. Step two involves asking students to vividly imagine the benefits they'll experience by accomplishing their goal. This can be done in their head or shared through discussion, writing, or illustration. These benefits may be experienced now or in the future, but it may be best to consider both as a way to balance the long-term rewards of higher education with our natural bias toward the present. For example, completing a scholarship application may lead to a new source of money for college while also being the next step toward an aspired career. Imagining benefits is essential to prime students for what's at stake when it comes to completing (or not completing) their goal.
• Challenges. The third step is to identify challenges standing in a student's way, or what psychologists call mental contrasting. For example, claims on a student's time, such as work or taking care of siblings, might derail their academic plans. Temptations, such as hanging out with friends or binging the new season of Stranger Things, might be another barrier. Students don't need to identify every challenge—doing so would be impossible—just the handful that are most likely to occur. It also helps to specify when, where, and by whom these obstacles are most likely to arise in order to facilitate the next step.
• Contingencies. Step four is developing "if-then" plans for when these challenges inevitably occur. For example, a student might decide, "If my friends invite me to hang out at the beach, I will work on my FAFSA instead and find another time to meet up." But contingencies don't always have to place college aspirations above all else. While they often take a backseat to work and family obligations ("If I get called in for an extra shift, I will wake up an hour early the next morning to read the course catalog"), students should also take time for rest and leisure ("If my brother wants to play Madden, I will play one game with him and then return to my summer reading.")
• Specifics. The final step is to add specifics (i.e., implementation intentions) to students' contingency plans. Perhaps they know that summer reading will be difficult to accomplish with their little brother's Xbox reverberating through the house. So they could create a more specific plan around where ("on the porch") or when ("after my brother goes to bed") they'll read. Research shows that the more specifics attached to our plans (such as where, when, and with whom), the more associations we make between our environment and the tasks we need to accomplish, and the more likely we are to follow through.

Putting it all together

When working with students over the summer, you can leverage these five steps to help them commit to and follow through on their college goals. In one study, researchers sent postcards to remind employees to get a flu vaccine. When these postcards included blank spaces to write down the date and time at which they planned to get vaccinated, employee vaccination rates increased by over 12 percent. Instead of focusing solely on deadlines, your emails, texts, and mailings could encourage students to think about the "ABC²S" of goal setting.

Another benefit to the "ABC²S" of goal setting is that they help students evolve their planning and time management skills. In one study, German undergraduates who considered challenges and contingencies (i.e., mental contrasting and implementation intentions) for academic goals planned out 22 more hours of their week than did control students. In another experiment, U.S. undergrads who were taught these techniques as a metacognitive strategy for goal achievement reported better time management, controlling for depression, stress, and overall well-being. Thus, sharing these techniques with your students could not only prevent summer melt but also set them up for success heading into their first year of college and beyond.