Latino, low-income students tend to aim low in college choices Kitsap Sun: Janelle Calderón has the grades, test scores and extracurricular activities to get into a good four-year university. Instead, she's leaning toward a community college close to home.
Ventura College would be less expensive, she said, and she wants to stay close to her parents.
"It would be economically beneficial for my parents if I went to VC," said Calderón, 17, a senior at Foothill Technology High School in Ventura. "They have good jobs, but right now it's more difficult."
Calderón's situation is not unusual, according to a USC study released this month. Latino students - even when they have the grades to get into a competitive school like the University of California - are more likely than their peers to attend a less-competitive community college. It's called "undermatching."
Overall, more than a third of Latino high school graduates went to community college in 2010, compared with roughly a quarter of white and Asian students.
Latinos make up about half of the state's college-age population, so the trend could have a major impact on the state's economy, said Estela Bensimon, one of the study's authors and a professor of higher education at USC.
