About CollegeTracks

“We founded CollegeTracks because EVERY child who graduates from a Montgomery County Public School DESERVES the opportunity to go to college or technical school — regardless of his or her family income or whether his or her relatives attended college.”

CollegeTracks Founders Cathie Goltz, Nancy Leopold, and Nancy Zeller

CollegeTracks Believes

• Every student who graduates from a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) high school deserves the opportunity to go to college or technical school.
• There is an appropriate higher education program for every MCPS high school graduate.
• Too many MCPS students don’t go to college because they have no one to help them through the complicated admission and financial aid process.

“Without them I could have never done it. I would be without a college and financial help.”

Wheaton HS graduate, Middlebury College

CollegeTracks Works

• Served over 1900 students and their families since 2003
• Over 95% of CollegeTracks seniors were accepted to at least on college or technical school.
• Over 95% submit the FAFSA. Many also apply for the Maryland Guaranteed Student Access Grant.
• Over 50% were accepted to four-year colleges.
• CollegeTracks 2011 graduates were offered more than $5.5 million in grants and loans for postsecondary programs.
• Among those who chose Montgomery College, CollegeTracks significantly increased the number of students headed to honors and other special programs there.
• Numerous Montgomery County high schools have requested a CollegeTracks program.
• CollegeTracks is a low-cost intervention (less than $1250 per student per year) with a huge return on investment for the students, their families, and our community.

“My parents did not go to school in the U.S. so it was really helpful.”

B-CC HS graduate, American University

The CollegeTracks Program Model

College Admissions and Financial Aid Advising: expands awareness of college/career options; identifies colleges that fit each student; uses a "Milestones to College" Student Workbook to take students through the critical milestones of the college admissions process; advises on college decisions; engages parents; expands awareness of financial aid options, provides hands-on help with the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and other scholarship applications, advocates with college financial aid officers, helps analyze financial aid packages

College Success Advising: teaches critical college-success skills, helps each student develop a 4-year plan, monitors/supports student academic performance, helps with financial aid, sets up buddy programs and group support, provides individual coaching as needed

• Based on best practices for getting low-income, first generation college bound students to and through the postsecondary programs that best fit each student’s interests and abilities
• Full-time staff members and volunteers are in the high schools every day. Students can easily find CollegeTracks staff and the staff can easily find students
• Relentless focus on helping students successfully navigate the critical milestones required to get admitted to college and secure enough financial aid to attend
• Gives students and families critical information and guidance to make informed financial choices about colleges.
• An inclusive program that works with every student who needs us, regardless of his or her grades, test scores, income, or immigration status.
• Works in close collaboration with Montgomery County Public Schools, high school administrators, counselors, and staff, the Montgomery County Recreation Department, and Montgomery College as well as with other community based organizations.

“CollegeTracks helped me know the importance of the right college and helped me apply for scholarships and grants I knew nothing about. The staff were very friendly and supportive and made sure we go somewhere and do something with our life. They care and that makes me care about making a future for myself.”

Wheaton HS graduate, Frostburg State University

College Access Matters

Attaining a post-secondary credential has become increasingly important for securing opportunities to get high-return jobs in the United States in the 21st century. Students from low income families are underrepresented at every milestone in the educational pipeline. That limits their ability to attain post-secondary credentials and break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Hudson Institute Center for Employment Policy, 2009. Prepared for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

• The road to financial stability — for individuals and communities — goes through college or some other form of post-secondary education.
• Low income youth are three times less likely to get there than their more affluent peers. It’s not grades — low-income students with high grades are only as likely to attend college as CollegeTracks students face one or more serious barriers to getting to college.
  • Many are the first in their family to go to college and are unfamiliar with the process. Some are immigrants and face language and cultural barriers.
  • Most believe college is unaffordable.
  • Unlike their middle class counterparts, they have no adult in their lives familiar enough with the American higher education system to help them successfully navigate the complicated maze of gaining admission to college and securing enough financial aid to attend.

• Research shows that low income students often fail to get to college because they:
  • fail to identify colleges that meet their abilities and interests
  • fail to complete the many milestones required in the admissions and financial aid process do not apply to enough colleges, and
  • fail to file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the document required to get federal, state, and most institutional financial aid.
• Low-income youths who get to college make $1 million more over their lifetimes than those who don’t go and have the chance to lift their families out of poverty forever.
• The need for college access services is large and getting larger. More than 17,000 current Montgomery County high school students are or have been eligible for Free and Reduced Meals — a family of 4 must make less than $41,000 to qualify.
• Students most at risk of not getting to college — first-generation college bound, immigrants, minority, and low-income students — come from the fastest growing demographic groups in MCPS.
• When more young people get to and through college, Montgomery County will be more productive economically, have a strong educated workforce with greater self-sufficiency, greater earnings, higher tax revenues, less unemployment, better health, less crime, less reliance on social service programs, and greater engagement in civic and community affairs.