Dive Brief:
- Bloomberg Philanthropies is leading a coalition of organizations that aims to raise the number of top-performing students from lower-income families who attend colleges with six-year graduation rates of at least 70%.
- The coalition will hire 130 full-time counselors and designate 4,000 college students as part-time advisers to provide advice to students about where to apply for college and how to obtain financial aid, using video chat, email, texting, and telephone contacts.
- The coalition sent out 24,000 emails Monday telling lower-income/high-performing high school students they could succeed at top colleges, and many of those students will receive application-fee waivers, the New York Times reported.
Dive Insight:
Research shows that providing application fee waivers and basic information about college can change the minds of low-income students who wrongly believed certain colleges were out of reach. The five-year goal of the coalition is to raise the rate of top-performing, lower-income students attending the schools with the 70% or higher graduation rates, from one of every three students to one of every two students, according to the Times. The coalition includes Khan Academy, the College Board, and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. For the first two years of the program, Bloomberg Philanthropies is investing $10 million and the Heckscher Foundation for Children is contributing $1 million.