Many low-income students are the first in their families to attend college. The maze of college choices, applications, interviews, essays and financial aid forms is daunting to any family, but especially to those that have never been through the process. College Summit, a national non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., works to increase the college enrollment rate of low-income students by ensuring that every student who can make it in college has the know-how and support to make it to college.

College Summit thinks there are three gaps in the college access “systems” that keep talented low-income students from enrolling in college:

1. The Belief and Presentation Gap – Many low-income youth don’t go to college because of family obligations, a feeling that there isn’t enough money, or the perception that, with average grades and test scores, they aren’t “college material.” Moreover, since most low-income youth have numbers in the middle, they are essentially indistinguishable. The only way the promising ones can be noticed by colleges is if they produce portfolios that show the strengths beyond their numbers.

2. The Application Manager Gap – Most American teens heading to college rely on two types of adults: 1) expert counselors, who can disseminate college information to hundreds of students; and 2) non-expert, college-experienced parents, who help students stay on track through the complicated college process. In low-income communities, where most parents have not been to college, the second role – the College Application Manager – is missing.

3. The College Data and Relationship Gap – Colleges want high-potential, low-income youth. Right now, however, the only way to find them is to buy lists from the College Board and ACT, and then spend their entire “diversity” budgets fighting over the same tiny pool of high-testing, low-income youth. There is a great deal more “high-potential” out there, just as there is among middle-testers in the middle class. Colleges need a systematic way to review whole students, but they lack the resources to work with every low-income high school that might have good matches for them.

College Summit addresses all three gaps by:

• Running intensive, residential workshops for low-income, rising seniors where they complete their entire college applications; receive 1:1 college counseling; explore obstacles they may face on their path to college; and are trained as Peer Leaders, to support their classmates during senior year;
• Strengthening high school guidance systems, training teachers to fulfill the college application “manager” role for all seniors during weekly advisory periods, using a built-in Curriculum and powerful on-line tools; and
• Making it feasible for colleges to do Whole Student Review, providing “Preview Portfolios” to partner colleges on pre-screened, low-income youth – so they make better enrollment decisions and get higher retention.

College Summit has achieved consistently high results since its inception in 1993 – over 79% of College Summit students enroll in college each year (compared to 46% of high school graduates nationwide from the same income level), and 80% are staying in college. These results have been achieved with more than 4,000 low-income students, who have obtained over $21 million in college scholarships. College Summit currently serves communities in Illinois, California, Colorado, New Mexico, West Virginia, Florida, and Washington, DC.

According to College Summit, their model benefits all stakeholders: Students get a head start on college applications and learn lifelong skills; High Schools get a cost-effective college guidance solution; Colleges gain access to a pool of diverse, low-income students who otherwise may have fallen through the cracks, higher retention rates and better relationships with local schools and communities; and Communities and Employers get help building a more diverse workforce and breaking the cycle of poverty by sending low-income students to college.

Contact:

Jessica Robinson
College Summit National Headquarters
2600 Virginia Ave., NW
Suite 303, Washington, DC 20037

Telephone: (202) 965-1222
Fax: (202) 965-8988

E-mail: jrobinson@collegesummit.org