Minds Matter Students Receive Exciting News about Early Successes
New York – NY – April 7, 2016 — Minds Matter students in chapters across the country have already received exciting news about scholarships and acceptances to competitive colleges and universities.
Minds Matter students have received acceptance into some of our nation’s Most Competitive schools, as rated by Barron’s, including seven of eight Ivy League schools. These include: Barnard, Bowdoin, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Franklin & Marshall, Harvard, Oberlin, NYU, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, University of Richmond, Smith, Stanford, USC, Swarthmore, and Williams.
Eight Minds Matter students from chapters in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City were awarded Posse scholarships. Posse is a college access and youth leadership development program that supports students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential. One student in Los Angeles and one in Cleveland were named as Questbridge Scholars. Questbridge is a platform that bridges the nation’s brightest, underserved youth and leading institutions of higher education and further opportunities. A Minds Matter New York City student is one of only ten recipients of the highly sought after New York Times Scholarship. Three Minds Matter San Francisco students have received Meritus Scholarships.
Minds Matter, a rigorous three-year program for students from low-income families, not only prepares students through writing/critical thinking skills development, ACT/SAT prep, college selection, navigating the college application and scholarship process, it builds a high expectation and supportive community for students to reach higher than they ever thought possible.
Minds Matter focuses heavily on preventing undermatching, a phenomenon in which students from low-income families do not apply to or attend selective colleges for which they are qualified to attend. According to Hoxby and Avery, 53 percent of low-income students do not apply to a single school whose median SAT or ACT scores are similar to their own. Only 8 percent of low-income students apply to colleges the way their higher-income peers do – with a reach school, a safety school, and several other schools in between.
Minds Matter prevents undermatching through extensive academic preparation coupled with support to dramatically increase confidence in students to apply to competitive colleges. To date, 100 percent of Minds Matter graduates have been accepted into four-year universities and colleges and more than 70 percent attend colleges deemed by Barron’s as Most, Highly, or Very Competitive.
About Minds Matter
Minds Matter transforms the lives of accomplished high school students from low-income families by broadening their dreams and preparing them for college success. Through a highly selective and rigorous 3-year academic mentoring program, Minds Matter students accomplish the extraordinary. Powered by 1,900 volunteers nationwide, Minds Matter Chapters are located in 13 cities across the country, with the newest chapter launching in Detroit in the fall. The national office of Minds Matter is located in Manhattan.