How is the expansion of Admission Possible going?

In the fall of 2005, Admission Possible's Board of Directors adopted a plan to dramatically expand our program from serving about 600 students today to about 1,300 students within three years.  A major grant from the William H. and Nadine M. McGuire Family Foundation will cover half of the $3 million cost of this expansion.  We are now embarking on a campaign to raise the remaining $1.5 million to fund this expansion.

In 2006-07 we expect to have more than 900 students in our program (about 600 juniors and about 300 seniors).  We have expanded our program as much as possible at each of our existing partner high schools.  We have also begun partnerships with Robbinsdale Cooper and Armstrong High Schools, as well as charter schools Higher Ground Academy in St. Paul and Ubah Medical Academy in Minneapolis.  We are still exploring some other possible expansion sites.  If you would like Admission Possible in your school, please contact Associate Director Traci Parmenter at 651-917-3525.

We have received a major increase in the number of AmeriCorps members who will be able to serve with us next year.  We will have 46 AmeriCorps & VISTA members next year, up from 25 the past two years.  This increase will allow us to reach 1,300 students by 2008-09!  Our sincere thanks to ServeMinnesota, VISTA and the Corporation for National and Community Service. 

Is it possible that the students Admission Possible serves would have gone on to college even if they hadn’t been in the program?

This is hard to know for sure, but evidence suggests that for most students in Admission Possible, it is quite unlikely that they would have earned admission to a four-year college.  All of our students are low-income, more than 90% are students of color, and many of our students are from immigrant families.  All of these groups are disproportionately unlikely to earn admission to a four-year college.

When students begin our program, they take a full-length ACT exam to serve as a baseline.  This year’s junior students had an average score of 14.4.  This score would place those students in about the bottom 10^th percentile of all test takers.  Furthermore, the average GPA of students entering our program is 3.2, which is good but not outstanding.  Most students with this combination of grades and test scores would have difficulty earning admission to college.

Even for those students who might have made it to college without our help, we believe that their options might have been limited.  It is also unlikely they would have received so much in scholarships (our students earn an average of $5,000 in private-sector scholarships, which is almost exactly the typical unmet need of a low-income student).  Finally, our students persist in college at a rate of over 85%, which is outstanding, compared to most low-income students (only about 50% of all students who enroll in college complete a degree within 6 years—among low-income students the rate is approximately 25%).

Does Admission Possible work with others in the community who are focused on the same cause?

Absolutely!  Admission Possible was founded on the premise that it could only succeed if many others in our community played an important role in low-income students’ lives.  The students we serve could never succeed if it weren’t for the dedicated teachers and counselors in each and every one of our partner schools.  They are the ones who help our students get to the point where our services begin—and they continue to support our students during their time in our program.

We also count on many other nonprofit organizations and programs that inspire students to achieve by providing summer enrichment opportunities and after-school academic support.

There are many generous people and institutions in our community who are dedicated to helping our students afford college.  As we report on the front page, our senior students received more than $1.25 million in private-sector scholarships this year alone.

Finally, the colleges and universities in Minnesota and our region have been especially supportive of our students and our mission.  They host our students on campus visits, conduct trainings for our staff and provide myriad programs and services for our students when they get to campus.

Getting hundreds of low-income students into college each year is truly a team effort!