Helping high-achieving lower-income students apply to top colleges and universities nationwide

Each year, tens of thousands of hardworking, high-achieving students from lower-income families do not apply to leading colleges and universities that they are qualified to attend. What prevents high-achieving, lower-income students from applying to top-performing colleges and universities? They often lack personalized guidance about which institutions are a good match given their level of academic achievement, accurate information about the real costs of leading institutions, and models of other students like themselves who have successfully made the transition to top-performing colleges and universities.

In 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies and America Achieves launched CollegePoint, a coalition of nonprofit organizations and philanthropic institutions with the goal of increasing the number of high-achieving, lower-income students enrolling in top-performing colleges from 1/3 of 75,000 students each year to more than 1/2 by 2020.

Through this coalition, CollegePoint partners with best-in-class college access organizations to provide high-achieving, lower-income high school students with the individualized support they need to navigate the college application and financial aid process. Students connect with their advisors via text, email, phone and video chat, which allows them to schedule meetings at a time and in a way that fits their busy schedules and school responsibilities and advisors to supplement most effectively the work of in-school counselors and other resources available to students. Advisors support students in making a college list, revising college essays, navigating the financial aid process, finding and applying to scholarships, and making a college decision.

CollegePoint has counseled over 70,000 students to date. We partner with respected national organizations, including ACT, College Advising Corps, College Board, College Possible, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, Matriculate, ScholarMatch, and uAspire to give students personalized information on their college options and the associated costs, and, ultimately, to support them to apply to and enroll in top-performing colleges when they would not otherwise.