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Since 1980, college tuition and fees are up 1,200%. According to Forbes, the average cost of attending a four-year college or university in the United States rose by 497% between the 1985-86 and 2017-18 academic years, more than twice the rate of inflation. The cost of attending a traditional four-year university has been rising more than twice as fast as inflation, and two-year community colleges a third faster. Since 2020, Community Colleges enrollment in Massachusetts and nationwide have declined dramatically. The Boston Globe reports that some community colleges are missing a quarter or more of their students compared to before the pandemic. The sharpest drop in enrollment among community colleges statewide came at Roxbury Community College, which is down 35 percent from the fall of 2019. Cost is a major factor in the decreased enrollment at Community Colleges. Yet, 25% of community college students are Hispanic and Hispanics have seen the most significant increase in the attendance of community colleges, up 10% since 2008.
The number of Hispanic students enrolled in college rose from 3.17 million in 2016 to 3.27 million in 2017, making them the highest increase of all demographic groups in college attendance, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s nearly double the 1.4 million Latino students who attended college in 2000. About 70% of Latino undergraduates in higher education come from families in the bottom half of earners, according to federal data analyzed by the college lobbying group the American Council on Education. Nearly half of Latino students are the first in their family to go to college, according to data analyzed by Excelencia. As first generation students, Hispanic and Latino families often struggle to realize the many challenges in navigating the college process from tuition, room and board costs and other expenses to the dizzying array and complex nature of scholarships, grants and loans offered.
Massachusetts Hispanic Scholarship Fund was founded to address some of these most challenging issues, navigating scholarships and providing a simple scholarship of its own. As a 501c3 charitable organization we will do so across the Hispanic and Latino communities in Massachusetts most in need of better information and access to real scholarship dollars for college.
1 Hispanic/Latino is an ethnic category, not a racial category, and you may be of any race but you must be from a family whose ancestors came from at least one of these countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela or the Common wealth of Puerto Rico.
1 Hispanic/Latino is an ethnic category, not a racial category, and you may be of any race but you must be from a family whose ancestors came from at least one of these countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela or the Common wealth of Puerto Rico.
As part of the above scholarship, outreach to the focused high school on some key scholarships that are often underrepresented or unknown, but are fairly simple to apply and attain. The idea is to work with guidance counselors and set up information sessions for parents/guardians and students on key Hispanic scholarships to consider including: