If you’re a low-income student, you’ve probably already noticed that the deck is stacked against you when it comes time to apply to college.
You have the smarts to succeed, but your high school may not offer college prep courses. Your family doesn’t have money for tutors and test prep—in fact, you may have an after-school job to help pay bills, limiting the time you have to study. Maybe your parents don’t speak English well enough—or they’re just too busy to help—research educational opportunities for you. And if no one in your family has ever gone to college before, there is no one to discuss concrete expectations and benefits to help you make an informed decision.
College bridge programs are specifically designed to stem opportunity gaps like these. They give students familiarity with the college experience by teaching appropriate study skills, mental readiness, and postsecondary-level course instruction. The goal is to level the playing field for students like you.
If you’re a low-income student, a first-generation college student, or a minority student, most likely there’s a college bridge program for you. Read on to learn what college bridge programs do, who is typically eligible to participate in one, and how you can apply.
Finally, we’ll give you a representative list of college bridge programs so you can better understand some of the services they provide.
What Are College Bridge Programs?
Bridge programs take many forms, but their common goal is to provide supplemental educational and emotional support to students from low-income families to help these students successfully navigate the college experience.
Individual college bridge programs do some or all of the following:
Partner with schools to provide tutoring and academic coaching
Address solutions to common challenges low-income students face
Offer mentorship, resources, and guidance
Provide transitional support for students who want to transfer into a four-year university after earning an associate’s degree
Give students meaningful classroom or workplace experience
Help students adapt to the academic challenges they face as college students
Teach appropriate social skills that students will need to succeed in college
Show students how to take notes and study effectively
Why Are Bridge Programs Needed?
According to a 2019 report from the Pew Research Center, the number of low income students attending U.S. colleges and universities rose dramatically—from 12 to 20%—between 1996 and 2016. However, that growth is not represented evenly. Low-income students are far more likely to attend less competitive schools, where they not only find fewer resources to help them succeed but also have less chance of earning a competitive salary once they graduate.
More recently, the pandemic has taken a toll on this progress. Requests for aid from FAFSA were down 5% in 2021; since 2020, when the lockdown closed schools across the United States, approximately 270,000 low-income students, predominantly Black and Latino, dropped out of the college application process.
In all, approximately 1 million fewer students were enrolled in college during the 2021-22 academic year. Enrollment at all institutions of higher education are down 6.6%.
Where have these students gone? According to Doug Shapiro, head researcher at the National Student Clearinghouse, most have entered the general labor market. “Community colleges are the schools that traditionally enroll lower-income students,” Shapiro is quoted as saying in a recent interview with NPR, “so we can assume that that’s primarily who is affected and still staying away the most.”
The news isn’t all discouraging. Early reporting from the Common Application in January 2022 indicates that interest among first-generation and minority students is rebounding. Applicants for the 2022-2023 school year increased 13% overall from the 2019-2020 academic year. That figure is higher among unrepresented minorities (17%) and first-generation college students (21%). The fact that many colleges and universities have continued to waive the test score requirement may be encouraging more students in this demographic to apply.
Who Do Bridge Programs Serve?
In a broad sense, bridge programs are designed for low-income students. Some are designed specifically for a given race or ethnicity as well. The programs target students at various points in their academic instruction:
Some bridge programs work with students as early as elementary school, creating partnerships with schools in order to immerse students in a college-preparatory environment from an early age.
Sometimes bridge programs are geared toward the college application process and may help second-semester high school juniors with creating college lists and writing their college essays.
Summer bridge programs, often affiliated with a particular college or university, provide supplemental education for upper-level high school students or students newly accepted into their institution. These programs may provide ongoing support to undergraduates in the form of mentorships, internships, and other resources.
Some bridge programs are the product of an alliance between a four-year university and its local community college. These programs work by building a cohort of students at the community college level and fostering their successful transfer over to the four-year school.
Are These Programs a Good Fit for You?
If you qualify for the free lunch program, there’s a bridge program out there for you. You may also be able to take part in a college bridge program if you’re an ethnic minority or first-generation college student, regardless of your family’s economic status.
Here are some other things you’ll need to participate in a bridge program:
A strong GPA. While this criterion varies from program to program, most are looking to assist college-bound students who have a proven track record of academic success.
A willingness to change your priorities. College bridge programs are designed to make you college ready. You’ll be asked to develop critical thinking skills and a study schedule. That means you’ll have to be willing to prioritize school over social activities—and be able to resist peer pressure.
Supportive parents. Your parents are probably thrilled that you’re college bound. But are they willing to lighten your load at home to give you time to fit the extra work and commitment into your schedule? It may require an adjustment on their part as well.
Supportive staff and teachers. For a lot of students, high school is a second home, and you probably already have a favorite teacher, coach, or administrator. That person can be a great secondary support system for you, helping to cheer you on when you have doubts or feel discouraged.
How Do I Apply for a College Bridge Program?
If you’re still in high school, a good first step is to find out what programs are available in your community. Your college counselor is the best person to ask about supplemental college programming, including college bridge programs. They can also help you with the application process.
What if I Don’t Have a College Counselor?
Here are some steps you can take if there’s no dedicated counselor at your school:
Talk to a favorite teacher. Explain that you’re thinking about college and be specific about what you need. Is it better to have study skills? Mentorship? Instruction in areas your school might be lacking, like AP courses? Your teacher may be willing to help you search out programs even if they don’t know offhand what might be available. You can also ask your teacher if they’re willing to recommend you. Some programs will ask for teacher recommendations and endorsements.
Search to see whether the colleges you’re interested in attending have bridge programs. Bridge programs are often specific to a given college, university, or community college. Write to the Office of Admissions and ask about their programs, or Google “bridge programs X university.”
Check out the application information online. Like colleges themselves, many bridge programs only accept applications during a specific window of time. You can find that information on their website. If the information isn’t available, click the “Contact Us” tab and write to ask for details about the application process.
Find out how to order your transcript. This is normally something college counselors take care of. However, you can ask the staff in the principal’s office at your school how to go about sending your grades to the bridge program if they require that information, It may cost a few dollars to send your transcript to the program.
Seek help with the program’s admission essays. Our free guide, How to Write a College Essay: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide, provides sound guidance for writing any admission essay. Other ways you can get help are by asking teachers, counselors, and friends to read your essay over. Having a second (or third or fourth) pair of eyes on your essay can really help you identify its strengths and weaknesses.
A List of College Bridge Programs and the Services They Provide
AVID: Providing Educational and Career Resources to Partner Schools
AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a nonprofit organization that serves 7,500 partner schools and 2 million students, making it one of the largest bridge programs in the United States. It works with students from elementary school through high school, providing career and technical education, college and career readiness, literacy, social and emotional intelligence, and cultural relevance and responsiveness.
The hallmark of AVID’s program is teacher training. AVID provides training in professional growth and a variety of teaching initiatives, including STEM, schoolwide literacy, and fostering an equitable classroom culture.
Is the program effective? According to USA Today, 42% of AVID’s alumni graduated from four-year colleges, as opposed to just 11% of students from the same demographic elsewhere.
To learn more about AVID, you can visit their website here.
Questbridge: Helping Low-Income Students Get into Elite Schools
Like AVID, Questbridge is a national nonprofit devoted to closing the opportunity gap. However, Questbridge’s focus is more narrow. The program “connects the nation’s most exceptional, low-income youth with leading colleges and opportunities.” Although the program provides support until its scholars get their first jobs, the main attraction of the program is a full ride to college—the equivalent of a $200,000 scholarship.
Questbridge works to match students in their College Prep Scholars Program with partner schools, mostly elite universities and liberal arts colleges. They accept students from all over the United States, giving preferential treatment to families that earn less than $65,000 a year. Read our full guide on the program here.
What else does it take to be accepted into the College Prep Scholars Program? Unlike AVID, which targets students with average profiles, Questbridge looks for candidates who can be accepted into elite schools on the merit of their academic achievements. You’ll need a strong GPA (the average GPA is 3.91) and SAT scores above 1260. Most Questbridge Scholars are in the top 10% of their class as well.
Interested high school juniors can learn more about Questbridge’s application process here. For more help writing the Questbridge essays, see our full guide.
The National Hispanic Institute: Fostering Community Leadership
The National Hispanic Institute (NHI) works with 2,000-2,500 Latino and Latina students each year. Its mission is to create opportunities to engage “achieving high school and college-aged youth in community leadership roles that advance [a Hispanic] quality of life.”
While the focus of the organization is on creating leadership opportunities for high school and college students, NHI also hosts The College Register, a membership organization composed of 80 colleges and universities that actively recruit college-eligible Latino students. It hosts digital college fairs and college admission training programs for students who want to attend college.
NHI also features academic enrichment and internship opportunities for high school students.
You can learn more by going to the NHI website.
TRIO Programs: A Series of Eight Federal Bridge Programs
Founded during the Johnson Administration in 1964, TRIO is the first program designed to help disadvantaged students access college. The eight federal programs that comprise TRIO are:
Upward Bound
Talent Search
Student Support Services
Veterans Upward Bound
Educational Opportunities Center
Training Program for Federal TRIO Programs
Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program
Upward Bound Math-Science
You might recognize the name Upward Bound, the original TRIO program. It is designed to assist low-income and first-generation students to excel in college by providing academic programming, tutoring, mentoring, counseling, cultural enrichment, and services that improve students’ financial literacy.
Upward Bound provides economic assistance to secondary schools, institutions of higher education, local education agencies, nonprofits, and state education agencies. The program works with students from age 13 to 19. Two-thirds of the students enrolled must be both low income and first generation; the rest may be either one or the other.
Talent Search is another TRIO program that helps prepare students from disadvantaged backgrounds get a postsecondary education. It provides academic, financial, and career counseling to low-income students; Talent Search will also help students navigate the college application process.
You can read more about the eight TRIO programs by going to the U.S. Department of Education website.
Sankofa: Supporting the Retention and Recruitment of Black Students at Nevada State College
It may seem strange to cap this list of national organizations with a small group like Sankofa, but this kind of college bridge program is common throughout the United States. Many colleges, universities, and community colleges have adopted a cohort model to help minority students stay on track while they’re in school. As college students, Black men are especially fragile; only 36% of them complete a college degree.
Sankofa has two main objectives—to retain and recruit Black students. It hosts an Annual Summer Bridge Program for high school juniors, seniors, and community college students interested in NSC. This program helps teens learn student success strategies and become financially literate.
In order to retain students, Sankofa provides mentorship by Black faculty and staff. The organization also works in partnership with local Black community groups and helps students create graduate school lists and identify research projects they might be interested in pursuing at the graduate level.
The Final Takeaway
If you’re a low-income, first-generation, or minority student, most likely there’s a college bridge program for you. Some, like the TRIO programs, are federally funded and have broad, overarching objectives. Others are small cohort programs designed to assist students at a particular college or university.
What these programs have in common is a desire to make education more inclusive. Inclusivity can seem like a buzzword, but nothing could be more important than diversifying boardrooms, hospitals, universities, and public agencies. Our future depends on having different perspectives seated at the table. College bridge programs take us one step in that direction.
