Young Adults Grade High Schools Mediocre, Colleges High

A new poll finds they felt little support in their transition to college

Young adults say high schools are failing to give students a solid footing for the working world or strong guidance toward college, at a time when many fear graduation means tumbling into an economic black hole, a new poll shows.

Most of the 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed in the Associated Press-Viacom poll, released last week, gave high schools low grades for things that would ease the way to college: A majority said their high school wasn’t good at helping them choose a field of study, aiding them in finding the right college or vocational school, or assisting them in finding ways to pay for education.

If schools did these things better, that could make a significant difference, because young people already are enthusiastic about higher education, the findings suggest. Two-thirds of the respondents said students should aim for college, even if they aren’t sure which career they want to pursue. Almost as many said they wanted to earn at...