Matriculate: Youth-Empowered Virtual College Advising

Matriculate was founded in 2014 in response to research by Caroline Hoxby of Stanford and Christopher Avery of Harvard, which found that every year at least 35,000 high-achieving, low-income students were not making their way to America’s best colleges, despite being qualified to do so, because they lacked the information and support they needed to apply to top colleges. Research shows that these talented students are dispersed in low concentrations across the country, in small cities and towns outside the reach of conventional college access organizations.

As a result, high-achieving, low-income students often end up at local, non-selective colleges where they take on greater student debt burdens and face a lower likelihood of graduating. We know that the effect of attending a leading college or university is significant. In addition to the social capital and opportunities obtained at a top college, students graduating from one of America’s most selective colleges earn, on average, $600K more over the course of their lifetimes in comparison to students who do not attend a selective college—allowing them to move out of poverty and create pathways of success for themselves and their families.

Matriculate identifies high-achieving, low-income high school students who lack quality college advising and connects them with a highly-trained, near-peer college advisor. The application process has a low barrier of entry and only takes 5 minutes via an online form. After enrolling in Matriculate, each high school student is paired with an undergraduate advisor to work with 1:1 throughout the college application and enrollment process.

This year, nearly 2,000 diverse and committed undergraduates at schools including Johns Hopkins, UPenn, and Yale have committed to 40+ hours of ongoing training to provide free, personalized virtual advising to nearly 6,700 high school students across the country. 

Our approach places a premium on authentic relationships and equips high school students with a supportive, highly-trained, accessible, and tech-savvy mentor who knows them well. Matriculate’s undergraduate advisors—the majority of whom share the same socioeconomic background as the high school students they support—not only personally guide their high school students through the college application and enrollment process, but also transfer social capital and self-advocacy skills that prepare students for college and beyond. Having just completed the college process themselves, our advisors are uniquely positioned to make connections with their high school students and facilitate valuable exchanges that will empower these high-achievers to apply to colleges when they would not otherwise. 

Matriculate’s high school students receive 1.5 years of free, virtual, near-peer college advising that empowers them to enroll in high-graduation rate colleges where they will receive academic, social, and financial support to graduate on time with low student debt burdens.

Matriculate focuses on connecting underrepresented students of color, first-generation college students, and students from rural communities with free virtual college advisors. By leveraging technology, we’re able to reach high school juniors and seniors who reside outside of where traditional college access organizations serve and have been able to successfully and quickly scale. Since our founding, we’ve scaled by 10X+ from serving 350 high school students in each graduating class to now an anticipated 3,700 and have been able to decrease our fully loaded cost per student by over 20% since our launch. Matriculate high school students are diverse and without models of matriculation, rely on their advisor for support throughout the college application and enrollment process. In the class of 2023, 74% are first-generation college students, 85% are students of color, and nearly 70% reside in rural or suburban communities.

Matriculate’s barrier to entry is low and our model is meant to reach students where they are; it takes only five minutes for a junior or senior to enroll in Matriculate. After enrolling, a student is matched with a virtual undergraduate advisor and can begin receiving college advising whenever, wherever. 

Over the next three years, we’ll provide free, virtual college advising to over 10K low-income high school students dispersed across the country. To do this, we’ll partner with over 2,500 undergraduates who will receive over 40 hours of training and professional development over the course of their 18-month long fellowship.

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

During their 18-month fellowship, our undergraduate advisors train for over 40 hours and master giving and receiving constructive feedback, become accustomed to managing complex timelines and deliverables, develop agendas, and forge effective virtual relationships. They are value-driven leaders who are strong relationship-builders and show empathy to their high school students, making them strong candidates for a breadth of roles after college.

In 2021, Matriculate conducted a qualitative study by Katie Lynk Wartman, PhD. to better understand our near-peer relationship model. Dr. Wartman found that undergraduate advisors build authentic and trusting relationships with their high school students, making them uniquely positioned to influence high school students’ college application and enrollment decisions. Moreover, Dr. Wartman found that through this relationship, college students transfer a kind of social capital to their high school student: "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.”

Each year, we see an increased share of high school student alumni returning as advisors to give back to the next generation of low-income young people. This year, nearly 100 advisors are former Matriculate high school students, nearly 40% of advisors are first-generation college students, and nearly three quarters are students of color. 

Advising Fellows report that their experience in Matriculate has taught them valuable skills for their future, including tactical skills such as communication, time management, and leadership, as well as soft skills such as empathy. One student shared: “I am more comfortable talking to new people, expressing my thoughts, and leading others. Matriculate's dedication to continuous feedback has also helped me to be more self-reflective and actively identify ways I can improve.” Another said: “Being a Matriculate advisor has vastly improved my ability to empathize with others, advise students, and work with information I have (and do research) to find full and correct answers to questions efficiently.” 

Over 80% of Matriculate Advising Fellow alumni say that Matriculate has taught them valuable skills for what they’d like to do in life and students express that their fellowship training and tenure help them feel ready to excel after college regardless of their area of focus: “I think that serving as an Advising Fellow has instilled further confidence in my abilities to enter my career without feeling that I am underprepared. I would like to be an actuary, which would require frequent communication.” Advising Fellow alums go on to lead successful lives in an array of industries and be our next generation of leaders.

Matriculate is at a critical organizational tipping point as we scale our cost effective, gold-standard proven model and double down our commitment to closing resource gaps for unsupported communities. To achieve our ambitious goals, we will build new partnerships to source high school and college students and launch the organization into a new phase by building our brand and national presence.  We seek MIT Solve’s support and expertise on the following areas:

Evaluating our impact during a critical growth phase: Our team is proud to have received gold-standard proof of impact. We seek to expand on the ways in which we evaluate our program model in the years to come, on quantitative and qualitative fronts including: 

• Social-emotional learning (SEL) and belonging

• Post-graduation outcomes for students and eventual labor market outcomes

• The continued ripple effects of Matriculate on communities and families.

Growing our national branding and presence as a college access organization via mission-aligned media outlet highlights, recommendations on communication best practices, refining our messaging, telling our students’ stories authentically, and more. 

We recently launched a new website to more clearly communicate our distinction and elevate our national brand. Insights from MIT Solve would assess the effectiveness of these initiatives and advise on branding best practices and next steps.

Optimizing our systems to scale. As we grow both our slate of staff and number of students served, we would welcome insights on strategies to maximize existing digital infrastructure–including Salesforce, Airtable, Zoom, Dropbox, Tableau, Slack, Mailchimp and other platforms–to streamline workflows and operations more efficiently.

Building partnerships to support mission-aligned revenue streams and outlets for student sourcing. Matriculate is eager to form partnerships with a diverse array of college campuses (especially HBCUs and majority-minority institutions), peer college access and success organizations, and employers interested in supporting our work.

Matriculate is the only advising organization with a completely virtual near-peer model with gold-standard proof of impact. At a fully loaded cost-per-student of under $600, we could be one of the lowest-cost methods of improving bachelor's degree attainment among the HALI student population.  At a projected 3,700 students served in the Class of 2027, Matriculate is serving nearly 10% of the addressable market – and growing.

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.

Matriculate is currently in the final year of a refreshed strategic plan to center the organization on equity and scale our cost-effective college advising model to reach more high school students in each graduating class than ever before. 

In the next year, Matriculate will:

• Increase impact, serving 4,000+ talented, low-income high school students per year by 2025, while maintaining strong rates of enrollment and persistence at high-graduation rate colleges (90%+). 

• Build sustainability in internal infrastructure through an increased slate of staff across the Revenue, Program, and Finance teams.

• 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. 

Over the next five years, Matriculate will:

• Provide free, virtual college advising to over 15K low-income high school students dispersed across the country. To do this, we’ll partner with over 4,000 undergraduates who will receive over 40 hours of training and professional development over the course of their 18-month long fellowship.

• Measure Matriculate's impact on college enrollment and social emotional learning outcomes and social capital.

• Strategically deepen and expand our earned revenue partnerships with colleges and employers. Strategically diversify our on-campus partnerships to maintain a pool of advisors that represents the students we serve.

Matriculate’s success is defined by having a positive impact on the number of students who graduate from high-graduation rate colleges, and eventually show successful labor market outcomes. We measure towards the following metrics:

Number of students served: Since our founding in 2014, Matriculate has empowered nearly 14,000 high-achieving, low-income high school students on their journey to a best-fit college.

Randomized Controlled Trial: A randomized controlled trial, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ CollegePoint Initiative and conducted by Professor Ben Castleman of the University of Virginia, demonstrated that Matriculate works and may be among the least expensive interventions that move the needle for low-income students getting 4-year college degrees. Matriculate students in the classes of 2018-2020 saw a statistically significant 24% increase in enrollment at top colleges across the country as compared to a randomly selected control group. We are grateful to partner once again with Ben Castleman from UVA to conduct a study to examine enrollment, persistence, and graduation outcomes for the classes of 2024 and 2025. This study will examine our impact on enrollment, persistence, and graduation.

Internal survey results: Matriculate measures students’ progress towards major milestones including building a balanced list, applying for financial aid, comparing financial aid packages, and eventually making a college enrollment decision. This spring, 95% of high school students reported applying to at least one high-graduation rate college, and the majority applied to 8 or more schools.

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 408:1, 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.

Matriculate is proud to demonstrate that meaningful relationships are not only possible virtually, 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, YAMM, 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, Drive, 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, HootSuite, Twitter, Tiktok, and Slack

To evaluate and share our impact with our partners, we leverage:

• CRMs including Salesforce NPSP and Airtabe

• Gift processing systems including PayPal, Benevity, and NPOConnect

Nonprofit impact and success platforms, including Candid GuideStar and  Google Business Profile

Matriculate is committed to partnering with staff, high school students, and undergraduate advisors to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization. We seek to build a team that is active in contributing to advancing and sustaining a culture in which all lived experiences are welcome.

As we grow, we are focused on supporting talented, low-income high school students who most often lack substantive, in-person college support and peer models of matriculation: rural and suburban students, underrepresented students of color, and first-generation students. 

Of the class of 2023, 74% of Matriculate high school students are first-generation college students, 85% are students of color, and nearly 70% reside in rural or suburban communities.  This year, nearly 100 advisors are former Matriculate high school students, nearly 40% are first-generation college students, and almost three quarters are students of color.

Key resources

• Central staff, growing to 40+ FTEs by end of FY 23

• Undergraduate advisors, student leaders, and interns

• $11.3M gap over next 3 yrs

Partners and key stakeholders

• High-achieving, low-income high school juniors and seniors

• Undergraduate advisors at 18+ participating colleges and universities

  • College partners

  • Employer partners

• Peer student sourcing organizations e.g. College Board and Scoir

Cost Structure

• Personnel to drive forward student recruitment, advisor recruitment and training, finance, operations, and development/earned revenue streams

• We will focus on expanding team capacity as we scale to serve 4,000 students per year by 2025

• Non-personnel expenses including curriculum development, evaluation, consulting fees

Key Activities

Direct implementation:

• Pair high-achieving, low-income high school students with undergraduate advisors, who will work together virtually for 1.5 years on key college application milestones

• Execute innovative recruitment initiatives to reach potential students and advisors (social media, in-school outreach, etc.)

• Monitor advising relationships, and progress against milestones, via data management software including Airtable and Salesforce and rigorous internal and external evaluation methods

• Create spaces (info-sessions, hiring partnerships, etc.) for student and advisor communities to build professional skills and lasting friendships

Operations:

• Support diverse team of 40+ FTEs

• Analyze qualitative and quantitative data monthly/yearly to drive programmatic change

Type of Intervention

• We provide an ongoing advising service for 1.5 years per program cycle.

• Each program cycle lasts from the end of a high school student's junior year through the end of their senior year, into the college transition period.

Channels

Live virtual modalities, including:

• Zoom

• FaceTime

• Phone

Communication platforms, including:

• Slack

• Text

• Discord

• Email

Data/CRM tools, including:

• Salesforce 

• Airtable

• Dropbox

Surplus

• Scale to serve more students per year: above and beyond 4,000 students per year by 2025.

• Invest in team capacity

• Enhance data analytics and impact measurement

Segments - Beneficiary

• High-achieving, low-income high school juniors and seniors

• Undergraduate advisors at 18+ participating colleges and universities

Segments - Customer

• Individual funders committed to expanding college access

• College partners including Princeton, Johns Hopkins University, University of Notre Dame, and others

• Employer partners

• Peer organizations that source students, for whom Matriculate services are complementary

Revenue

• Grant funding

• Board contributions 

• Individual contributions 

• Earned revenue via partnerships - employers & college campuses  

Value Proposition

User Value Proposition

• Students are equipped with knowledge, confidence, and near-peer guidance they need to apply to and attend selective colleges

• Advisors develop relationship-building and communications skills, and access professional opportunities

Impact Measures

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

  • Self-reported belonging, helpfulness ratings along a Likert scale

  • Completion rate of milestones e.g. FAFSA and college applications

Customer Value Proposition

• Colleges develop equity-minded student communities on campus, professional skill-building opportunities for undergraduates

• Employers access diverse, young talent

• Peer organizations who do not otherwise offer advising services can equip their students with Matriculate support

Matriculate raises revenue towards our operating budget through philanthropic and earned revenue sources. We are supported by a generous and committed Board of Directors who offer a diverse range of perspectives. We are looking to fill an $11.3M gap over the next 3 years, which we will accomplish through institutional partnerships and earned revenue pipelines, as well as growing our Board slate and raising Matriculate's national profile as a well known college access organization that allows students to receive free, virtual college advising anytime, anywhere. In addition, we are currently recruiting to hire a VP, Advancement to refine our team’s fundraising strategy and lead our growth in a sustainable way. This person will be supported by an additional two new hires that will focus on individual and institutional giving, a current Director, and an Associate. With this team onboard, we are confident we can close our funding gaps and create new opportunities for the organization through targeted funding plans.

In January, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Matriculate announced an expansion of our partnership to provide free, personal “near-peer” college advising to high-achieving students from lower-income families through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ CollegePoint initiative. Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, also announced generous support to help Matriculate extend its impact and serve more students nationally. Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced a new $12 million commitment to Matriculate over the next three years. Ken Griffin, Citadel, and Citadel Securities are committing $3 million in support over the next two years to Matriculate.

Our top five funders in the current fiscal year include: 

1. Bloomberg Philanthropies

2. Citadel 

3. Jenesis Group

4. Sean and Sue Cullinan 

5. The Bunker West Foundation