College Pathways: A Choose Your Own Adventure Quiz

A diverse group of young students walking through a college campus; sunlight filtering through trees, portraying a mix of emotions such as hope, uncertainty, and determination.

College Pathways: Choose Your Adventure

Embark on a journey through higher education with our engaging quiz designed for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Explore various choices and scenarios that reflect the real-life challenges faced by first-generation college students. Discover insights into the college experience and find out how your decisions shape your path to success.

Understand the trade-offs of different college choices.
Explore the impact of socio-economic status on education.
Gain insights into student support systems and challenges.

12 Questions3 MinutesCreated by NavigatingFuture21

Learn about college outcomes through answering questions about your player’s desired college experience. This quiz provides an example of the hard choices and sacrifices that students from disadvantaged backgrounds must make on an individual level in their pursuit of a college education. By no means does it fully reflect the vast experiences that students have throughout their college experience.

Play as the following character:

Age: 20

Socio Economic Status: Lower Middle Class

First Gen?: Yes

Enrolled full-time?: Yes

High School: Attended an underperforming, overpopulated school in their city

Current Location: The student lives in a state with two universities that are equally distant from their home. Once they attend college, they will pay in-state tuition.

Play as the following character:

Age: 20

Socio Economic Status: Lower Middle Class

First Gen?: Yes

Enrolled full-time?: Yes

High School: Attended an underperforming, overpopulated school in their city

Current Location: The student lives in a state with two universities that are equally distant from their home. Once they attend college, they will pay in-state tuition.

Choose Your School!

Large public - $11K tuition a year, 33K students, 39% live on campus, 28:1 student to faculty ratio, Top 100 US news ranking list, limited financial aid, 27% white people, 63.4% four-year graduation rate, 57% enrolled full-time

Private elite - $55K tuition a year, 10K students, 82% live on campus, 6:1 student to faculty ratio, Top 10 in US news ranking list, a lot of financial aid, PWI, 97.3% four-year graduation rate (lots of school supports), 70% enrolled full-time

Where do you decide to live?

On-campus, in dorms - you’ll have a built-in community, but you’ll have to take out a loan to pay for the extra $15-20K for room and board.

Off-campus, renting with other students in a nearby apartment. You might get bad roommates, but it’s cheaper!

Off-campus with family. Saves tons of money, but you’ll have to commute to school and balance home life and college. You might miss out on certain activities.

What major do you choose?

STEM/Business: Courses are rigorous and a big time commitment (meaning it’s less likely you’ll complete and pass degree requirements), but higher payoff post graduation

Liberal Arts: Follow your passions, but future success relies on the opportunities you take, find, or are available to you.

Undeclared: take time to explore everything and find a major with the right fit, but it might take longer than 4 years to graduate (costing you additional $).

You are approved for a Work Study job. Where would you like to work?

Doing research with a faculty member. It’s a big risk since your chances of being hired are low but this is a highly selective opportunity.

Staffing student life and athletic events. They look for students every so often, so you will likely get hired.

Food Services & Facilities. They’re always looking for people to staff the dining hall and to maintain dorms - you will definitely get hired, work flexible hours, and get a good hourly wage.

You decide to focus on your college experience; you need time for academics and extracurriculars.

You’re walking through the Quad and you see there is a Club Fair. What club do you sign up for?

Greek Organization - Remember it’s a huge time commitment and there are fees associated.

Affinity groups (Casa Latinx, Black Student Union, LGBTQIA+ Center, Asian American Association, etc.). They’re great but get little institutional support and recognition.

Random, fun, social club. Great opportunity to make friends, nothing to lose if you have the time.

Intramurals. Events are at night and over the weekends, hard to participate if you are a commuter.

Academic organization related to your discipline. Not super fun, but great networking and conference opportunities (of course only if you pay $$$)

No time for clubs, I have a lot of responsibilities outside of school

Who’s part of your squad?

People with similar interests as my own

People with similar identities as my own

People from my Greek house

People from my major - it’s all about networking!

No new college friends, I hang out with friends from home

No one, I have a hard time meeting new people

You’re having a difficult time with a class assignment. What do you do?

Visit office hours and request an extension from my professor - If you are at a big state school, your professor is more difficult to reach because of your class size.

Go to the tutoring center, but it is only open from 9-5, and is often overbooked.

You planned to visit the tutoring center, but your shift was scheduled during this time, so you have study independently

Meet with other classmates to ask for help

You’re an independent student, you shouldn’t have problems resolving this on your own

Here is a list of internship options, which do you apply to?

A paid internship at a well-known company, though the work is often boring and not demanding. This opportunity is only open to STEM majors.

An unpaid internship in your field of study that can give you transferable skills for future opportunities, but it’s going to be a lot of time and work.

Unfortunately, you cannot participate in an internship - either you don’t want to or you have other commitments.

When things get difficult and you have competing demands, what do you prioritize and what do you sacrifice?

Academics are my priority, so I do well in school; however, I don’t have much time to connect with professors, classmates/friends, or even my family.

Attending office hours and networking at events. My network is everything! This doesn’t leave me time to see my family or friends

Investing time in the clubs/orgs I’m involved in. It gives me a strong community, but I don’t always get the best grades.

I have a lot of responsibilities outside of being a college student (to my family/work), so it’s not always realistic to prioritize academics and extracurriculars

Disclaimer: As stated at the start of the quiz, this project is not intended to provide a complete and consequential picture of the college experience. Instead, it is our intent to show how higher education systems have institutional barriers in place that prevent students from succeeding, especially given how the education gospel contributes to the belief that a college degree is synonymous with upward mobility.

College Pathways: A Choose Your Own Adventure Quiz

College Pathways: Choose Your Adventure

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