Despite facing the greatest barriers to reaching the middle class, Hispanics are the most fervent believers in the American Dream, a new College Board/National Journal Next America Poll shows.
Overall, Hispanics scored higher on questions regarding barriers to college completion except one. Blacks feel discrimination on campus more acutely than other groups, the poll found.
Poll results indicate that Hispanics were the most likely to drop out of college because of cost; the most likely to need a job while in school; the most likely to be in college part time; thought they lacked strong academic training to succeed in college; acknowledged not studying hard in college; and said they lacked role models.
Seventy percent of Hispanics set aside luck or fortitude and accept that a four-year college degree is the most sure-fire credential for lifelong success. As a group, they are noticeably more optimistic about the effect of a four-year-degree on their livelihoods than Asians (61 percent), blacks (55 percent), and whites (47 percent), the October nationwide poll indicates.
Hispanics and nonwhites with or without college degrees were much more likely than whites to embrace that power of a degree, the poll showed. More than 70 percent of Hispanics and 60 percent of nonwhites believe that a college degree will have a positive impact on their careers, compared with 44 percent of whites with a diploma and 49 percent of those without.