Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 23, 2007|Volume 35, Number 19

Workshops on applying to college
to be held for low-income students

Yale has entered into an agreement with College Summit to host a group of high school students and volunteers this summer for a four-day workshop on applying to college.

When undertaking the college application process, high-achieving, low-income students often lack resources available to their wealthier classmates, such as test preparation courses, campus visits and application guidance. College Summit, a not-for-profit company founded in 1993 by Yale alumnus J.B. Schramm, gives these students the skills they need to compete for admission to college.

This summer, 35 to 50 rising seniors will participate in the program at Yale; they were chosen by their schools for academic promise and motivation. Yale will provide room, board and classroom facilities, as well as volunteers from the Yale Office of Undergraduate Admissions to assist with teaching the workshop.

"We have been looking for a way to address the larger problems facing students from low-income backgrounds," says Jeff Brenzel, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale. "Our own outreach and promotion efforts reach only a small number of students. By partnering with College Summit, we can help many more good students find a college fit, even if they do not happen to be applying to Yale. We feel that this partnership aligns well with our longstanding commitment to issues of diversity and opportunity."

At Yale, professionals from across the country will volunteer time to assist high school students in completing all aspects of their college application, including the personal statement, a key component of the application. Through one-on-one meetings, college counselors will help the students create a detailed list of schools to which to apply. Other trained volunteers will address goal-setting and decision-making skills. On average, 79% of College Summit workshop participants enroll in college each year.

It is also expected that when these students return to their high schools, they will be equipped to serve as peer leaders for their fellow students and will help build a college-going culture. Many studies have shown that high school students turn to their peers for encouragement and information, and College Summit has trained over 7,000 peer leaders to take on this role.

For the fourth year in a row, College Summit (www.collegesummit.org) has won the prestigious Social Capitalist Award for 2007, an honor created by Fast Company magazine and Monitor Group to recognize non-profits using business tools to solve the world's most pressing social problems.

College Summit works in partnership with schools, school districts and colleges to develop a sustainable model for raising post-secondary school enrollment rates community-wide. Stanford and Fairfield universities are among the 30 other schools that have entered into partnerships with College Summit.

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