Matriculate: Free, virtual college support–anytime, anywhere

Matriculate is solving the undermatching challenge for high-achieving, low-income high school students (HALIs) — especially from small towns and cities, dispersed across the country — who fail to apply to any colleges that are an academic, social, and financial fit for them. 

Matriculate was founded in 2014 in response to Caroline Hoxby (Stanford University) and Christopher Avery (Harvard University), who found that every year, more than 35,000 HALIs do not apply to any selective institutions, despite the fact that they are (1) more likely to graduate from these schools than from less selective colleges, and (2) less likely to incur student debt at these schools than at less selective colleges (Hoxby and Avery, 2012). 

We know a bachelor’s degree from a leading institution is one of the most effective vehicles for upward social mobility. Without support, however, HALIs are more likely to remain in the cycle of poverty, and the nation loses bright future leaders in every industry. Students graduating from one of America’s most selective colleges earn, on average, $600K more in lifetime earnings than students who do not attend a selective college, allowing them to move out of poverty and create pathways of success for their families (Witteveen and Attewell, 2017).

Many students experiencing undermatching face two key misconceptions about selective institutions:

• They underestimate their potential for admission. For HALIs from rural or suburban backgrounds with few role models of matriculation, the prospect of attaining a college degree may seem slim. First-generation students, or students with few other sources of college access support, may struggle to envision themselves academically, socially, and financially thriving at a selective institution. With a national average student to counselor ratio of 424:1, there are few reliable sources of support that our HALIs can turn to; over 90% of Matriculate high schoolers report having no college support outside of their Matriculate advisor and, potentially, a high school counselor or peer (American School Counselor Association, 2020).

• They overestimate their cost of attendance. HALIs may be unaware of the ample financial aid opportunities available to them. Institutions eager to socioeconomically diversify their student bodies are often prepared to give generous grants to HALIs, drastically minimizing the out-of-pocket cost of attendance or eliminating it altogether. According to a 2018 study by the National Center for Education Statistics, among students who fail to apply for financial aid via the FAFSA, 23% reported not having enough information to complete the form, including 43% of students whose parents received less than a GED (Bahr, Sparks, and Hoyer, 2018).

Matriculate connects talented, low-income high school students across the country who lack high-quality, in-person college advising with highly-trained undergraduate advisors—the majority of whom share the same socioeconomic background as the high school students they advise. 

Each high school student completes a 15-minute application, which details their academic history, interests, and concerns about the college process. Our team then matches each eligible student to an undergraduate advisor who will serve as a source of support for 1.5 years, from the end of the student’s junior year through their transition to college. Advising pairs meet 1:1 at least once per month through entirely virtual modalities including video chat and phone conversations, and maintain steady communication through document-sharing, text, and email. 

With support from their advisor, each Matriculate student works through our 31-step curriculum and completes key college milestones including identifying their college preferences, applying to a balanced list of colleges, developing personal statements, and applying for financial aid.

Our undergraduate advisors are required to commit to 50+ hours of ongoing training and professional development, and report to staff and Matriculate undergraduate leaders on their campuses. Undergraduate advisors who join our leadership teams are responsible for coordinating the advisor recruitment and training process, monthly fellowship meetings, and social events. Through our employer partnership program, our undergraduates also receive access to networking opportunities aligned with their interests. 

WHO WE SERVE

To date, Matriculate has supported over 11,000 high-achieving, low-income high school students (HALIs). Our students have annual household incomes below $80,000, demonstrate a history of academic rigor at their high schools (e.g. taking most challenging classes available), and hold a GPA of 3.5 or higher. The majority are first-generation students and identify as students of color.

As we grow, we are focused on supporting HALIs who most often lack substantive, in-person college support and peer models of matriculation: 

• Rural and suburban students

• Underrepresented students of color

• First-generation students

Our ~2,000 advisors⁠ ⁠— including those serving current high school juniors and seniors ⁠— come from 15+ campuses across the country, including the University of Notre Dame, Hunter College, UC Berkeley, and Yale University. After completing a rigorous training and advising skills evaluation, each advisor serves up to four high school students each, receiving extensive support from Matriculate staff and undergraduate leadership.

OUR IMPACT 

We provide HALIs with the knowledge, guidance, and confidence they need to enroll in a competitive college of their choice. Matriculate advisors help fill these gaps by providing HALIs with institutional knowledge on financial aid and application strategy, and by serving as encouraging models of matriculation. HALIs go on to thrive in high-graduation rate colleges, where they gain access to institutional resources and peer networks.

Our undergraduate advisors transfer social capital to their high school students. In 2020, Matriculate partnered with Katie Lynk Wartman, PhD, on two qualitative research fronts to examine Matriculate’s impact. First, Dr. Wartman conducted a qualitative investigation of our near-peer model, finding that “students see their relationships with advisors as authentic—this leads to a high level of trust which in turn creates relationships that have social capital.” Second, Dr. Wartman explored a case study to understand the ripple effects of one student’s college experience. She found that “this [Matriculate] student had direct and indirect effects on his peers through both formal and informal opportunities to share his experience with college. He set an example of applying to and matriculating at a top performing college out of his home state.”

“As a student attending a rural school district where applications to selective schools are a rarity, I had a lot of self-doubt entering the admissions process. I will be attending Princeton next year, but I almost didn't apply,” shared Gianna, a Class of 2021 Matriculate student. “[My Matriculate advisor] helped me build confidence and understand my strengths. This application cycle was especially challenging, and it was invaluable to have advice from a college student who was in my shoes a few years ago.”

We are leaders of change in virtual advising support, and have a cost-effective, scalable solution. We pride ourselves on efficiency. By leveraging undergraduate volunteers and our 31-step curriculum, we deploy and disseminate high-quality advising while maintaining a lean central staff. This has allowed us to decrease our fully loaded cost per student by over 20% since beginning our work while increasing the number of students served by 10X. If Matriculate’s effects carry through to bachelor’s degree completion, Matriculate would be one of the most cost-effective strategies for improving bachelor's degree attainment among low-income student populations. 

As a partner of institutions including Princeton, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, and Middlebury, we’re grateful to be backed by some of the strongest voices in the college community. After COVID highlighted our strengths as a virtual college advising organization, we have eagerly supported many organizations undertaking a virtual transition. This year, one of our senior staff members participated in College Greenlight’s Equity Collaborative panel that brought together community-based organizations and college leaders to discuss the impacts of COVID on low-income students. Our membership with the Christensen Institute and Network further allows us to draw on best practices and share our learnings.

Matriculate is a youth-led solution to solving the national college undermatching problem. By leveraging near-peer networks of support, we are creating a self-perpetuating engine of change.

Matriculate is built by student and advisor perspectives. We are data-driven and regularly source feedback from our students and advisors. Our team monitors student progress against monthly milestones—as well as net promoter score (NPS), self-reported advisor helpfulness, and outstanding questions—via monthly surveys, and uses our findings to inform program implementation. 

After hundreds of students expressed interest in more opportunities to connect with Matriculate peers and alumni, our team worked with undergraduate leaders to create a nationwide Matriculate Discord platform. As of March 2022, there are 1,198 Matriculate students, advisors, and leaders on the platform, who participate in daily exchanges about scholarships, personal statement revisions, and peer perspectives at specific college campuses. 

We know that near-peer mentorship is powerful. Our undergraduate advisors, having recently completed the college application process themselves, are uniquely positioned to transfer social capital to their high school students. In addition to providing the essential information required to apply to top schools, our advisors serve as models of matriculation.

From Hosaena, a Matriculate Class of 2021 student: "I'd like to thank my advisor, Sandy, for her patience…and above all, providing me reassurance when I felt discouraged. Sandy openly discussed her high school and college experiences with me to show that I, too, can succeed as a young Black woman in university. I truly believe our one-on-one discussions, connection, and understanding ultimately showed me I can succeed academically and thrive wherever I end up."

As we prepare for an ambitious growth phase, Matriculate is seeking guidance from leaders in the social impact space. We are encouraged by Solve's demonstrated history of supporting educational equity and access to professional opportunity for the nation's diverse, low-income youth. As we scale to serve more students in each graduating class, we seek Solve's support in reaching those students in most need of our services: underserved rural and suburban students, underrepresented students of colors, and first-generation students.

We would be grateful to join the Solve community and count Solve as a thought partner in the next stage of our work. In the next several years, Matriculate will double down on our impact and evaluation, build our brand on the national stage, increase financial sustainability through new earned revenue streams, and serve as leaders in the higher education space. 

LEADING THE WAY FOR VIRTUAL MODELS

Matriculate is the only advising organization with a completely virtual near-peer model with gold-standard proof of impact. By leveraging technology and undergraduate volunteership, we could be one of the lowest-cost methods of improving bachelor's degree attainment among the HALI student population.  At a projected 3,500 students served in the Class of 2023, Matriculate is serving nearly 10% of the addressable market—and growing.

OVERCOMING GEOGRAPHIC BARRIERS

We synergize rigorous relationship-building and the flexibility of our virtual model to reach students—including those in small towns and rural areas across the country—anytime, anywhere. We provide comprehensive advising support where it's needed most; many of our rural and suburban students lack robust in-person guidance at their schools, and live far from urban centers that often serve as hotbeds for college recruitment efforts. 

ENERGIZING POST-COVID VIRTUAL TRANSITIONS

We are eager to share our best practices after seven years in the field. Matriculate has maintained strong partnerships with several colleges that invest in our work, and served as a thought partner to peer organizations learning how to operate virtually.

Over the next five years, Matriculate will:

• Increase impact, serving more talented, low-income high school students in each graduating class.

• Center equity in student sourcing and organizational planning. To do this, we will focus on sourcing unsupported first-generation students, underrepresented students of color, and rural students. 

• Build sustainability in earned revenue and internal infrastructure while launching the next phase of our work.

Matriculate measures impact across several domains, including:

• Student enrollments at high-graduation rate institutions (graduation rate of >70%)

• Self-reported college fit along a Likert scale

• Self-reported advisor helpfulness along a Likert scale

• Self-reported belonging within the Matriculate community

• Student- and advisor-reported progress against key college milestones (e.g. # of match college applications per student, FAFSA completion rate)

THE PROBLEM

Too few of the nation’s talented, low-income students apply to any high graduation rate colleges, though they are more likely to graduate and less likely to shoulder student debt burdens at these colleges than at other institutions (Hoxby and Avery, 2013).

With an average national student to counselor ratio of 424:1, too few of these students, especially those in rural and suburban areas, have access to high quality advising (American School Counselor Association, 2022).

OUR SOLUTION

• Matriculate trains undergraduates to serve as virtual advisors to high-achieving, low-income high school students (HALIs). 

  • Output: Undergraduates learn to listen with empathy, build relationships rooted in openness and consistency, and develop communication skills that equip them for direct service and beyond.

    • In the short term: Undergraduates develop an understanding of barriers to education access, and exercise their advising skills to address these barriers. They gain relationship-building skills and have access to professional development opportunities that build on this skillset.

    • In the long term: Undergraduates foster lasting cultures of equity, inclusion, and service at their campuses. They are prepared to lead advising training for those in classes below them, and create a nationwide network of students supporting students. 

• Matriculate undergraduate advisors and HALIs meet 1:1 to discuss college access milestones over the course of 1.5 years. 

  • Output: HALIs apply to college in a way that is strategic and aligned with their values. They work with advisors through milestones including identifying their college preferences, applying to a balanced list of colleges, completing the FAFSA, and making an enrollment decision.

    • In the short term: HALIs gain access to near-peer mentorship, whenever and wherever they need it—and build financial literacy, writing skills, and self-confidence about belonging in college. They engage in conversations that address their concerns about the college experience, and in many cases, create lasting friendships with their advisors and peers. 

    • In the long term: HALIs informally (e.g. through 1:1 conversations) and/or formally (through advising roles with Matriculate or other organizations) share their learnings with younger peers, making college access information more readily accessible to low-income students everywhere.

OUR HISTORY OF IMPACT

Student enrollment at selective colleges: Matriculate tracks enrollment rates at selective colleges, and has supported over 11,000 HALIs to date with the support of over 3,000 advisors.

Social capital transfer: In 2020, Matriculate partnered with Katie Lynk Wartman, PhD, on two qualitative research fronts. First, Dr. Wartman investigated our near-peer model, finding that “students see their relationships with advisors as authentic—this leads to a high level of trust which in turn creates relationships that have social capital.” Second, Dr. Wartman explored a case study to understand the ripple effects of one student’s college experience. She found that “this [Matriculate] student had direct and indirect effects on his peers through both formal and informal opportunities to share his experience with college. He set an example of applying to and matriculating at a top performing college out of his home state.”

Matriculate is proud to demonstrate that meaningful relationships are not only possible in the virtual space, but that they hold great promise as pathways of equity and inclusion for the next generation. To this end, we leverage accessible technology at every level.

To foster 1:1 relationships with students and advisors, we leverage:

• Video conferencing, including FaceTime, Google Meet, and Zoom

• Phone and e-messaging apps, including mass-SMS, mail merges, and MailChimp

To deliver and monitor learning content, we leverage:

• Webinar and content broadcasting apps, including YouTube and Vimeo

• Databases and CRMs, including Salesforce, Airtable, and Dropbox

• Survey collection tools, including Airtable and Google forms

• AI integrations, including Twilio and SM Apply

To build a national student support network, we leverage:

• Social networking platforms, including Discord, Instagram, Facebook, and Slack

Matriculate is dedicated to addressing barriers to college access for high-achieving, low-income students. Our vision is that one day, all the talented students in America will have access to colleges where they will thrive, regardless of their socioeconomic status or background, which will give them a unique opportunity to change the trajectory of their own lives and the lives of their families.

Some examples of this work include: sourcing students in greatest need of support: underserved rural and suburban students, underrepresented students of color, and unsupported first-generation students; embedding DEI conversations into our undergraduate training process; creating a team culture that honors diverse staff experiences and invests in organizational capacity

We have a strong commitment to ensuring we have a robust and diverse team of funders to support our work. Since inception, we’ve been able to recruit champions who have invested in Matriculate, ⁠including members of our Board, top institutional funders, corporations, and colleges.

To promote organizational sustainability, we have developed a multi-pronged strategy to maintain and increase funder diversity. We hope to engage new funders through multiple modalities including events, closed-door discussions, 1:1 conversations with our staff and students, and collaborations with peer organizations. 

Our fundraising strategy will respond to changes in the philanthropic and higher education landscape. We seek to form partnerships with mission-aligned employer and campus partners who⁠—especially in light of COVID⁠—are renewing a focus on boosting educational equity and access to professional resources. 

Over our past seven years of operation, Matriculate has secured  renewable multi-year funding from top institutional and individual donors.

We are focused on long-term sustainability in support of our strategic initiatives. As an example, we are exploring new earned revenue pathways, including collaborations with peer organizations seeking to expand direct services to students and employers seeking diverse, young talent. These innovations in our funding streams, among others, will support sustained growth as we serve an increased share of the addressable student market.