Philly students planning for college face financial worry, uneven access to help
- Mar 16
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 19
By Natalie Spina, Piper Mangold, Felix Otero, Ambrielle Parker and Kortnie McKnight
March 16, 2026
Youthcast Media Group®
Every day this fall and winter, Angelina Perez has sat in her bedroom, opened her Common Application, and stared at the list of colleges under her name. As a high school senior, each spare hour has been dedicated to supplemental essays and financial aid forms.
As a low-income first-generation immigrant from Argentina, she knew it wouldn’t be easy. But she poured herself into academics, hoping her success could guarantee some positive change for her family.
The college application process has taught her a hard lesson, though: hard work and academic success do not guarantee access, especially for low-income students. "I know that the college that I’ll end up attending doesn't [depend] upon where I really want to go… it depends on what I can afford," she said.
Perez, who attends the Philadelphia High School for the Performing Arts (CAPA), is not alone. Students at public schools across the city, especially those from low-income families, say they've struggled to navigate the complicated college application process, and don’t feel sufficiently prepared to seek out and apply for scholarships or deal with gaps in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) funding. And while there are some programs helping students navigate the process, many are limited in scope and others can be difficult for students to find and connect with. Students say they wish they had more help.
Underfunded city schools lead to less college help for students
Philadelphia schools are underfunded by $1.25 billion, according to a 2025 report from Children First PA.. As the only school district in Pennsylvania unable to raise its own revenue through taxes, Philadelphia instead relies on city and state resources for 99% of its operating budget, which currently stands at $4.6 billion. And with 198,299 students to serve, the district faces a projected annual deficit of $466 million in two years, according to Chalkbeat.
That funding deficit has far-reaching consequences, including high teacher attrition, a teacher shortage and a lack of support staff, including college counselors. According to The Hechinger Report, the average student-to-counselor ratio in Philadelphia public schools is approximately 1:392, significantly higher than the 1:250 ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association, and a world away from private schools in the city that boast ratios of 1:50 or lower.
Shaymaya Hyman-Scott, a senior at The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush (AABR), said that she wishes her school had started preparing her earlier for the college application process, a sentiment echoed by many area seniors.
“A big struggle for me has been finding scholarships,” she said. “I feel like there's so much information about it that they're just not telling us, and that they're expecting us to find on our own.”
Before the 2025-26 school year, AABR only had one counselor for 600 students, according to Principal Latoyia Bailey. “Now that we have two counselors, we have increased the timeline of earlier conversations about college with all of our students. We are currently preparing for a Junior Jump Start Day, which will include conversations with parents to inform them of what they need to be prepared for making college decisions with their children as well,” Bailey said.
The uncertainty and confusion about how to pay for college was echoed by more than 80 students– from Philadelphia and across the country– who responded to a Youthcast Media Group survey this fall. More than half of those students said affordability and scholarships were the most important factor they consider when applying for college, and nearly a third of the students reported being “very worried” about affording college. The biggest fears for most students– more than 70%-- were having a lot of debt upon graduating, and being a financial burden to their families.
Perrie Abad, a senior at CAPA, says that fear made her question whether she should even go to college.
“Is college the right choice with how me and my family live? I’m not trying to be a financial burden to my family… I don’t think we have the money for living and not only tuition but everything that comes with it.”
FAFSA is key, but also a barrier to affording college
The largest source of financial aid for college is the FAFSA. It’s so important to fill it out in order to afford college that Pennsylvania this year followed the lead of several other states in mandating that high school seniors complete the FAFSA.
As of December, only about 30% of Pennsylvania high school seniors had completed the form, ranking the state 24th on this measure in the U.S.
“If you do not complete your FAFSA, the odds of you matriculating are almost slim to none, because you just cannot. Who can afford that? That would all be out of pocket cost,” said Bryan DeFoney, vice president of programs at the Philadelphia Education Fund (PEF), a nonprofit organization that serves mainly low-income and first-generation students by providing academic development support and building pathways to post-secondary education.
But filling out the form is not so straightforward for many students, he said, particularly those who do not live with or have relationships with their biological parents.
“Unfortunately, it is very difficult to navigate around that. When you are doing this by yourself or maybe with your aunt, your uncle, whoever is really supporting you in this process, but we can't get the appropriate information in a timely manner, that is certainly a deterrent for a young person that says, ‘forget it– this is too much work.’”
That’s when support from a college counselor becomes crucial. And for students in many Philadelphia schools, that support is really hard to find. At schools across the city, particularly in low-income areas, counselors are too few, and are often focused on more immediate social-emotional and safety needs of students.
“They’re not just sitting, waiting for students to come in and do applications with them,” says DeFoney. “They're navigating truancy. They're out in the hallways working with young people who might be having some social-emotional issues. When they get to actually sit down and counsel a student on post-secondary planning… it's such a small fraction, unfortunately, of what they get to do day to day.”
Counselors in private schools spend more than twice as much time on college admissions work, on average, than counselors in public schools nationally, according to a study by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Madison Craig-Williams, another senior at CAPA who has committed to Haverford College next year on a squash scholarship, says she’s seen counseling improve at her school recently.
“The counselors are starting to do more than they've done … [now] there is actually a schedule for college visits. There's more resources with [Community College of Philadelphia] and more workshops,” she says.
CAPA did not respond to a request for comment.
Help is there, but students often are on their own to find it
Still, for many students, it’s up to them to find– or create– the help they need.
Craig-Williams, for example, helped form the College Prep Scholars club at CAPA, which she describes as “a network of people to help you throughout the [school year], so you're not rushing.” The club offers SAT prep, scholarship resources, study spaces, tutoring, and application assistance to the entire student body, regardless of grade, with the goal of helping students start thinking about college earlier.
Craig-Williams said her biggest source of support in getting into college, though, was a nonprofit academic and athletic mentoring program in the city called SquashSmarts, which recruits promising middle school students from five partner public schools.
SquashSmarts is one of many non-profits aiming to help Philly students get into, and afford college.
PEF, for example, partners with six high schools with low graduation rates to bring college prep resources “directly into schools that lack them,” says DeFoney. “We provide coaching and that continued support while the young person is still enrolled in school, and it's renewable every year.”
More than 90% of the students served by PEF become first-generation college students with financial support from the organization, with PEF providing more than $600,000 in scholarships a year, according to the organization.
Nicolas Nwarache, senior college readiness counselor at Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School, often points students towards the nonprofit Heights Philadelphia for college and career advising, dual enrollment courses, summer programming, and enrichment opportunities. Their results are promising: 96% of the Heights cohort class of 2024 graduated from high school, and 90% of Heights high school graduates are on track to matriculate to college immediately after completing high school, the organization reports.
Help is out there, if students know where to find it and how to get connected, says Nwarache.
That’s a lot of responsibility for students, and leaves many stressed and worried that they’ve missed opportunities or haven’t done enough.
“Everything that I’ve learned, I’ve had to go out and find on my own,” said Hyman-Scott, the senior at Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush. “To me, school has always meant so much more. My mom has instilled in me from a young age that education is power and that you need an education to get far in life. So I feel like college for me has always been this thing that I've worried about.”
Perrie Abad has been most worried that she’s not done enough.
“Did I reach out enough?... Did I do the right thing with FAFSA, did I do everything on my part to make college not only financially easy but give myself a bigger chance to get into a school I want to go to,” says Abad, who wants to study biology. “I’m still really worried about the cost. Hopefully it all works for me. I’m praying it does.”
Even after experiencing immense worry, Abad was accepted to Temple University, her top choice. Even though cost is still an important factor, the first round of acceptances has given her hope.
“I got into Temple, that’s a really big deal for me. I have friends going and it’s not too far from my house. I’m not fully committed yet, but I’m excited to have the opportunity,” she says.
Perez is now opening her email to college acceptance letters weekly. “I’ve received four acceptances so far, and while I still have some worries, the amount of relief those letters have given me is unimaginable,” she says.
“Every student who sees college as their path in the near future doesn’t have to be scared. It can be super overwhelming and nerve-wracking, but the moment everything falls into place is so worth it.”
Natalie Spina, Piper Mangold, Felix Otero, Ambrielle Parker and Kortnie McKnight are student journalists at the Philadelphia High School for the Performing Arts (CAPA). They worked with Youthcast Media Group journalist-mentors Dio Roberson and Brie Zeltner on this story.
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