It&#8217;s become something of a mantra.</p><p><em>Look toward college, young women and men. Education is your ticket to good jobs, livable pay, access to the global economy and a piece of the American dream.</em></p><p>The talk is far from idle. People with four-year college degrees earn median incomes 65 percent higher than those of high school graduates. Five of the six fastest-growing occupations require credentials beyond high school.</p><p>But pointing young people toward college isn&#8217;t the same as getting them in the door. And even entry doesn&#8217;t guarantee they will stay.</p><p>That is especially true for students from poor families in which the parents did not attend college. Only one in three high school graduates fitting that description enroll in college. Only one in seven earn college degrees.</p><p>Preparing for and applying to colleges is a daunting process. Many high schools attended by first-generation college prospects offer insufficient help, and students may be unaware of community resources.</p><p>That&#8217;s often not a problem for affluent students. Their schools help them prepare for standardized tests, fill out applications and apply for scholarships. Their parents expect nothing less.</p><p>Low-income students also may have fewer opportunities than their wealthier peers to take rigorous courses that prepare them for college work and offer a chance to obtain college credits while in high school.</p><p>Recent scrutiny found that efforts to prepare students to enter and succeed in college vary greatly among some area school districts. The inequities are illustrated in the stories of five area students profiled on B8.</p><p>Students at a Blue Valley high school have a counselor whose job is to work with advanced placement courses and help with college admissions.</p><p>But graduates have left Kansas City School District high schools without ever taking a college placement test or eyeing an application.</p><p>Lee&#8217;s Summit High School offers a full menu of college-level courses.</p><p>But a talented senior in the Kansas City, Kan., School District has had no such opportunities.</p><p>The pattern doesn&#8217;t fall squarely along income lines. Raytown School District, where more than 40 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunch, has a good system for providing information about college and careers, and steering students through the bewildering maze of tests and applications.</p><p>Students in low-income neighborhoods served by the Kansas City School District were most likely to be left behind.</p><p>&#8220;They don&#8217;t know the difference between community college, four-year college, out-of-state college,&#8221; said Ally Letsky, a counselor at Operation Breakthrough, a social services agency. She finds herself walking high school seniors and graduates through steps they should have taken as juniors.</p><p>Schools do an inexcusable disservice by neglecting to provide &#8220;college knowledge&#8221; to students striving to break out of poverty.</p><p>Experts say students and parents, especially those from low-income families, should begin receiving information about college and careers in middle school. That information should include details about financial aid; poor families often don&#8217;t realize the options available.</p><p>Students of all incomes need consistent counseling throughout high school regarding course selection and preparation for ACT and SAT tests. Being teenagers, they need reminders about the many deadlines in the application process.</p><p>Those tasks usually fall to guidance counselors, who too often must juggle the needs of college-bound students with crisis situations and, sometimes, lunch duty.</p><p>Many counselors have little time to make contact with admissions officers and to take other steps that would benefit students in the college sweepstakes.</p><p>Schools need to fix that situation. All students should have ready access to someone knowledgeable about college admissions and financial aid.</p><p>That&#8217;s especially true for first-generation college prospects. They are breaking a new trail, and schools must do all they can to smooth the path.</p><p><em>Next Sunday: Too many high schools are not preparing students to succeed once they get in college. Schools and colleges must work together to bridge the gap.</em></p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> &#8226;To read the experiences of five college-bound students, see B8. </p><p>&#8226;To see videos of the students, go to <strong>KansasCity.com</strong>.</p><p><strong><span class="infobox-head">What&#8217;s your opinion? </span></strong><br /> How can high schools improve college application guidance? Go to <strong>voices.kansascity.com</strong>.</p><p></div>