ACCESS Receives
Special Honor

ACCESS is proud to announce that it has received this year’s Champion of ACCESS award from the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM) at their recent Annual Dinner for its success in increasing college access for low-income students in Boston and Springfield.

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Impact

There is a strong need for ACCESS services to ensure that college is accessible for all young people. In response, ACCESS is continually expanding the reach of its high-impact advising and scholarship programs.

Need for ACCESS

  • Since 2007, more than 40% of Boston Public High School Valedictorians have applied for our Last Dollar Scholarships, meaning these top-performing students were at risk of having their dream of going to college thwarted due to insufficient financial resources.

  • 72% of students enrolled in the Boston Public Schools are at or below the federal poverty level of $20,000 per year for a family of four. In the Springfield Public Schools, that percentage climbs to 82%.

  • Over the first decade of the 21st century, 4.4 million college-qualified high school graduates from low- and moderate-income families will not attend a four-year college, and 2 million students will not attend college at all.

  • Students from a low- or middle-income family attending community college in Massachusetts will spend about 38% of their family's annual income on net college costs; the figure jumps to 50% at 4-year colleges. These costs have risen 35% in the last five years.

  • The Institute for Higher Education Policy recently conducted a national survey of academically prepared high school graduates who did not attend college and found that 83% did not enroll due to a lack of understanding about the financial aid process.

Impact on Boston's Youth

During the 2008-2009 school year, ACCESS:

  • Served more students than ever before in its Community Outreach and Awareness, Senior Advising, and Postsecondary programs.

  • Provided more than 9,000 one-to-one advising sessions to 2,329 Boston high school seniors and and helped students complete 1,241 FAFSAs.

  • Returned $61 in grants, scholarships, and loans on every dollar invested in advising programs.

  • Enabled students to secure more than $45 million in financial aid, an increase of more than 80% from the previous year.

Learn more about higher education and the opportunity gap on the Need page or browse Research on college affordability trends and higher education.