In an effort to guide more students from poor and middle-class families to the nation’s top colleges and universities — institutions from which research shows they tend to shy away — a new initiative announced Tuesday will provide free college advising via video chat and other forms of technology.
Collaborators in the project say they hope the initiative will provide the students with the kind of personalized counseling that students from more affluent families tend to get from private counselors or their school-based guidance counselors in the suburbs, who typically carry much lighter caseloads than their urban counterparts.
“If this demonstrates success over the coming years, I think it opens up a whole range of students across the country to have access to quality advising in a way that levels the playing field,” said Ben Castleman, an assistant professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia and an evaluator of the initiative.
The initiative — which does not have a formal name — will utilize a cadre of college advisers provided by three major players in the college access field. Those organizations are the National College Advising Corps, College Possible and Strive for College.
“I think this is going to totally change the game,” said Michael J. Carter, founder, president and CEO of Strive for College, which uses college students who are trained volunteers to mentor high school students as they search and apply for colleges.
Carter said the time is right to start providing college advising via video chat and other forms of technology because personal technology is more proliferate among teenagers, and the College Board — a collaborator in the project — is making available data on students from poor and middle-class families who have the SAT scores and AP exam scores to get into more selective colleges and universities.
