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Abstract
Despite continued growth in college access and completion rates, postsecondary enrollment has become more stratified by constructs of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. As disadvantaged student populations often lack adequate knowledge and resources of postsecondary choices, structured guidance is necessary to help educate students and families of ideal and accessible options. Current school staff and administration, including school counselors, however, often have minimal time to devote to these initiatives. Accordingly, this dissertation focuses on the work of full time professionals devoted to postsecondary guidance. Formally referred to as college advisers, recent undergraduates serve as part of a national non-profit organization, the College Advising Corps (CAC), to work with underserved student populations within high school settings. As a qualitative study guided by theory to incorporate student access demographics, and personal and environmental circumstances into college search and selection processes, this is an exploratory study to analyze how college advisers offer postsecondary guidance to underserved student populations amidst the context of their personal and environmental circumstances.