| Spotlight On: The College Profile |
 What makes the College Access & Opportunity Guide different from other college guidebooks?
 The first college guidebook of its kind, the College Access & Opportunity Guide profiles of over 225 colleges and universities  by highlighting college access and retention programs and giving first-generation, low-income, and minority college-bound students a real picture of the college opportunities that exist for them.
We believe that the best way to define a school’s excellence in access and opportunity is not by the numbers, but through the important and innovative programs that a college offers to serve and support first-generation, low-income, and minority students in its community and on campus.
We categorize these various programs as follows:
 ACCESS
 ACCESS programs are community outreach initiatives serving pre-college students. Increasingly, colleges and universities are recognizing their institutional responsibility to promote college-going beyond their own gates. Schools often forge programs through partnerships with underserved schools, school systems, religious institutions, and community organizations, and leverage their administration, faculty, and student body to assist college-bound students with academic enrichment, mentoring, college preparation, and college guidance.
OPPORTUNITY
OPPORTUNITY programs serve prospective students in getting to know a college and providing financial incentives for admitted students. These programs include scholarships, financial aid initiatives, visit and open house programs, and fly-in programs that in most cases cater specifically to first-generation, low-income, and minority students.
SUCCESS
SUCCESS programs address academic assistance, student support services, and retention initiatives geared to help students persist to graduation. These programs exist both in and out of the classroom and include pre-orientation/orientation, first-year programs, academic advising, mentoring, living learning communities, and student organizations and clubs that in most cases cater specifically to first-generation, low-income, and minority students. |
|
|
Many national foundations and associations, schools and school districts, and community-based organizations are supporting distributions of the College Access & Opportunity Guide to get this important resource in the hands of the students that deserve it. 
In collaboration with KnowHow2GO—a national college access campaign created in partnership with Lumina Foundation for Education, American Council on Education and the Ad Council—the College Access & Opportunity Guide provides a plan for first-generation and other underserved college-bound students to take four steps necessary to go to college.
