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There are significant differences in college matriculation rates among lower, middle and upper income students. While 48% of upper income students will have earned a college degree at a four-year college by age 24, only 7% of lower income students will accomplish the same goal. Even when one segments the students by achievement level, high income students are still much more likely to pursue a college education than low income students.

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Early awareness initiatives try to increase the number of lower-income and at-risk students pursuing a college education by encouraging them to consider college as a real possibility when they are young. Many lower-income children give up on college when they are very young, as early as the first or second grade. They do not expect to go to college, so they do not pursue a rigorous academic curriculum. By the time they reach high school and change their minds, they often lack the necessary preparation. Early awareness programs try to stop pipeline leakage when the students are young by encouraging them to aspire to and plan for college and by providing them with mentoring, counseling, tutoring and enrichment activities. This increases the number of students pursuing challenging courses (especially math and science), the number of students graduating from high school, the number of students matriculating in college, and ultimately the number of students earning college degrees.

Early awareness programs identify the barriers that prevent low-income students from earning college degrees, and take steps to help eliminate the barriers or minimize their impact. Barriers can include financial, academic, extracurricular, social and motivational stumbling blocks. Many early awareness programs offer scholarships as an incentive for students to succeed in school and prepare for college.

This section of FinAid provides information about some of the more innovative and successful early awareness programs. The FinAid site itself is a good example of an early awareness program, with extensive guides to saving for college, college aid planning calculators and advice on applying for financial aid.

Notable Early Awareness Programs

College Power Bulletin
The College Power Bulletin is a free four-page handout created by FastWeb to encourage all students to consider pursuing a college education. It motivates students by discussing why they should go to college and how to pay for college, and also includes a who's who of famous college graduates and quotes about the value of education. The College Power Bulletin presents simplified descriptions that do not assume any prior interest in college or familiarity with student aid terminology. The College Power Bulletin markets the benefits of a college education in terms that matter to students. In addition to the four-page College Power Bulletin handout, there's also a companion College Is Power PowerPoint presentation for use in student outreach. A Spanish language version of the College Power Bulletin handout, Boletín Acerca el Poder de la Universidad, is also available. (Thanks to Berenice Villela for the translation.)

The "I Have a Dream" Foundation (IHAD)
In the "I Have a Dream" (IHAD) program, sponsors 'adopt' a group of 50-80 low-income students and agree to pay for their college education if they prepare for college. The students can include a particular grade level from an elementary school or a particular age group from a public housing development. IHAD involves more than just a financial commitment. The sponsor is involved with the students throughout their education, providing mentoring, tutoring and enrichment activities to help the students prepare and to keep the dream alive. For more information, call 1-212-293-5480, fax 1-212-293-5478, write to "I Have a Dream" Foundation, 330 Seventh Avenue, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10001, or send email to info@ihad.org.

Promise Scholarship Programs are location-based scholarship programs where local philanthropists commit to providing college tuition scholarships for all public school graduates in a particular municipality or school district. In a way, this is similar to the efforts of the I Have a Dream Foundation, but on a much larger scale.

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs)
GEAR UP is a federal program modeled after the IHAD program. It was established by the Higher Education Amendments of 1998. GEAR UP provides funding to states and partnerships to help increase the number of low-income students who matriculate in college. GEAR UP programs start with a cohort of students in elementary and middle school in high poverty areas, and provide them with services and resources through high school graduation. Part of the purpose of the GEAR UP program is to help identify approaches that are successful and which can be replicated on a national scale. For more information, call 1-202-502-7676, fax 1-202-502-7675, or send email to gearup@ed.gov.

There are dozens of GEAR UP web sites, created by individual GEAR UP programs. Examples include GEAR UP Chicago, GEAR UP Mississippi and GEAR UP Kentucky.

Federal TRIO Programs include the Upward Bound and Talent Search programs. The Upward Bound program provides at-risk high school students (including low-income students and first-generation college students) with college preparation support. The Talent Search program provides academic, career and financial counseling to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)
The AVID program places academically average students in academically challenging courses and provides them with the academic support they need to succeed. The goal of this effort is to help prepare students in grades 5-12 for college.

Project Grad
Project Grad couples curricular improvements with student and family support programs, college guidance and college scholarships to help increase the number of lower-income students matriculating in college. They focus on the elementary and middle "feeder" schools that supply students to high schools, as they have found that interventions must begin before the 9th grade.

America's Promise: The Alliance for Youth
America's Promise is an alliance of hundreds of national organizations and local initiatives that focus on one or more of the "Five Promises". These include mentoring initiatives, a safe environment for after-school activities, healthy start, academic enrichment, and community service.

College Is Possible
The College Is Possible web site is an early awareness initiative sponsored by the American Council on Education. It provides information about preparing for college, choosing a college, and paying for college.

Mapping Your Future
Mapping Your Future is an early awareness web site sponsored by a group of guarantee agencies that participate in the Federal student loan program.

Think College Early
Think College Early is an early awareness effort sponsored by the US Department of Education. It provides information for students, parents and educators about planning for and paying for a college education.

I Am Your Child Foundation
The I Am Your Child Foundation is a national non-profit organization that focuses on early childhood development and school readiness.

Early Awareness Toolkits and Resources

The following sites provide resources and toolkits for designing early awareness programs.

• NAICU's Building Blocks to 2020 features hundreds of programs that attempt to improve college access, retention and completion.

• NASFAA's ABCs of Early Awareness is a good guide to early awareness programs and related resources, with a special emphasis on paying for college. NASFAA also publishes a collection of early awareness tools for financial aid administrators.

• National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP) tries to create partnerships between schools, their communities and other organizations in order to help improve access to postsecondary education among at-risk populations.

• The Education Trust tries to help improve the education of all students, by improving both K-12 and postsecondary education in ways that make them more effective. The Education Trust is sponsored by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE).

• National Mentoring Partnership is a national advocate for mentoring programs, serves as a resource for mentoring programs, and encourages individuals to volunteer to become mentors.

• AfterSchool.Gov provides information about federal resources for after-school programs for children.

• National College Access Network supports programs that try to inspire students to pursue a postsecondary education.

• Foundation for Excellent Schools partners with public schools in high-need communities to raise student aspirations and performance.

• Investing Early: Intervention Programs in Selected US States (February 2003), a report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

• Pathways to College Network and Clearinghouse focuses on resources for improving college planning, preparation, access and success for at-risk populations, including low-income students, first-generation students and students with disabilities. The site includes several research papers and policy briefs.

• Lumina Foundation for Education provides information and research about methods of improving access to and success in postsecondary education.

State Early Awareness Programs

• Alaska's Early Awareness Efforts
• California's Early Awareness Efforts
• Connecticut's Early Awareness Efforts
• Colorado's Early Awareness Efforts
• Hawaii's Early Awareness Efforts
• Illinois's Early Awareness Efforts
• Indiana's Early Awareness Efforts (See also GEAR UP Indiana and Twenty-First Century Scholars Program.)
• Massachusetts' Early Awareness Efforts (See also the Think College Early Massachusetts site, the Higher Education Information Center and GEAR UP Massachusetts.)
• Michigan's Early Awareness Efforts
• Minnesota's Early Awareness Efforts (See also the MAFAA Early Awareness site.)
• Montana's Early Awareness Efforts
• New Mexico's Early Awareness Efforts
• New York's Early Awareness Efforts (NYMentor)
• Ohio's Early Awareness Efforts (Lorain County) (See also GEAR UP Ohio.)
• Oklahoma's Early Awareness Efforts
• Oregon's Early Awareness Efforts
• Pennsylvania's Early Awareness Efforts (Education Planner) (See also PHEAA's early planning materials for K-8.)
• Texas's Early Awareness Efforts
• West Virginia's Early Awareness Efforts
• Washington Area GEAR UP

Effectiveness of Early Awareness Programs

Pathways to College Network conducted an analysis of the effectiveness of early awareness programs. The key findings of their report include the following:

• A failure to identify, target and reach many under-served students and their families.
• A failure to reinforce the message that college is possible on a broad, national level. There is a lack of unity and coordination across early awareness programs.
• The messages promoted by early awareness programs are uninspiring, vague and fail to motivate. They lack excitement.
• A lack of high-profile signature events and activities to draw attention to college attendance (i.e., no national walk-a-thon to raise money for scholarships for under-served populations).
• Early awareness is not embedded into popular culture.
• There is a lack of good information about the nature and benefits of a college education.
• There is no linking of desire with action. Although a few programs try to encourage students to want to go to college, most do not translate this into action. Families need to know the specific steps they should take in order to pursue a college education.
• Early awareness programs do not target parents and educators along with the children.
• Goals of early awareness programs are often vague and without concrete objectives.
• Early awareness programs are not evaluated in terms of the impact on matriculation and graduation rates among under-served students. As such, there is no knowledge of what strategies and tactics are most effective, no test-evaluate-improve cycle.
• No role is provided for corporate participation.
• Funding is weak.