From Access to Intervention: Defying Undermatch Only to Mismatch and Reverse Transfer

Abstract

This dissertation includes three stand-alone papers. Its broad purpose is to investigate how youth relational developmental support systems provide students from historically underrepresented backgrounds with the type of college-promoting social and cultural capital they need to limit their chances of undermatch, mismatch, and reverse transfer. The dissertation also examines the resulting college-participation experiences of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, as it is important to understand the consequences of match or undermatch, as well as to grasp the choice processes leading up to the matching of students with postsecondary opportunities. Conceptually, the three papers taken together further our understanding of the phenomena of undermatch, mismatch, and reverse transfer in relation to cultural and social capital development for first-generation college students from historically underrepresented groups. They contribute to the existing college choice and undermatch literature, as well as the persistence/transfer and mismatch literature. The qualitative design of each study helps to reveal how dyadic relationships (e.g., student-counselor, student-peer, student-professor) are embedded within a broader context of relationships, supports, opportunities, and barriers—that is, a web of support within a school, organization, or institution that provides a student with the social and cultural capital needed to get ahead toward the American dream. The first study explores explores the phenomenon of undermatch in the high school web of support, examining college-ready, low-income students who often apply to and enroll in less competitive higher education institutions than their academic qualifications might permit. This shows that information about a wide range of possible four-year colleges and universities is not always available to underrepresented students or their high school advisors, resulting in undermatch. The second study examines organizations designed to fill that gap. It explores the role of college-promoting community-based organizations (CBO), focusing in on one organization and two student participants. This study shows the ways the CBO can support high school students in the college choice process and limit the chance of undermatch. The third study, however, raises questions about what “college match” might mean. It follows the trajectories of two students from the first two studies after they leave high school for college. It seeks to understand how low-income, first-generation college students experience unwelcoming campus climates and the reverse transfer process. Finally, the dissertation’s conclusion discusses the implications for high schools, CBOs, and higher educational institutions concerning match and undermatch from the three papers.