Evolving College Access Programs

This insight paper is the second installment in Blueprint for Enrolling a Diverse Student Body, a four-part research series about how to identify, engage, and recruit students from underrepresented populations.

A proliferation of college access programs fails to combat under-enrollment of underrepresented minority (URM) and low-income students. Underrepresented minority and low-income students gravitate to community colleges—or fail to enroll in college at all.

College access programs need to reach more students to improve the pipeline of diverse applicants, but universities lack the resources and ability to build programs that support every student in need. Colleges and universities should scale the most critical aspects of traditional college access programs to increase college preparedness for more students.