Information Sources Used by High School Seniors

College choice is a critical decision facing many high school students. Although some research has examined where students go for help in making college choices, few studies have examined how race or gender differences of the students or differences in their standardized test scores affect their information sources. Entering college freshmen (N=3,708) indicated which ~f nine information sources (college students, friends, high school counselor, college publication, family, alumni, high school teacher, newspaper, tel~vision) they used in selecting a college. Responses were analyzed separately for females and males, blacks and whites, in each of four American College Testing (ACT) score categories. The results indicated that, for both sexes, the most frequently identified resources were college students, friends, and high school counselors. The counselor was identified as a resource more often than were parents or high school teachers. Blacks were more likely than whites to use counselors and less likely to use their family for college information. Students with lower ACT scores were more likely to use counselors as information sources than were students with higher scores. Friends were also a more frequent information source for low ability tested students. These findings identify the high school counselor as a critical resource in the college selection process for minority and low ability tested students.