About Us

Mission & History

College Advising Corps works to increase the number of first-generation college going, low-income and/or underrepresented students who apply, enter, and compete college. To accomplish this mission, we place recent college graduates from a partner university as full-time college advisers in some of America’s underserved high schools. Nationally, the student-to-adviser ratio is over 450:1, leaving many students with just 20 minutes a year with a college adviser. Additionally, high-need students often lack the guidance and support they need to prepare for and apply to college. College Advising Corps works in public high schools to provide the support needed to low-income and underrepresented kids to navigate the college admissions process.

College Advising Corps was launched in 2005 by Founder and CEO Dr. Nicole Hurd. Today, after more than a decade of growth and impact, College Advising Corps will serve 670 high schools in 16 states across the country. In 2013, with the help of the Greenlight Fund, College Advising Corps expanded to Boston. College Advising Corps was thrilled to partner with Boston University in the summer of 2015.

College Advising Corps – Boston University (CAC-BU) currently has 36 advisers serving in 32 high schools across Boston, Lynn, Malden and Somerville–including every Boston Public high school.

Our Impact

CAC-BU rigorously analyzes the impact our advisers have in the schools they serve. Each day, our advisers track activities that are key performance indicators for increasing college enrollment rates. These include:

  • Campus Visits
  • College Representative Visits and College Fairs
  • SAT/ACT Registration
  • College Workshops
  • College Application Submissions
  • FAFSA Completion
  • Scholarship Dollars Awarded
  • Family Engagement

In 2020-21 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, CAC-BU advisers:

  • Held nearly 12,000 one-on-one virtual advising sessions
  • Helped over 3,000 seniors submit +22,000 college applications
  • Retained services via virtual advising to 100% of schools partners

Compared with students who do not meet with a CAC-BU adviser, students helped by our advisers are:

  • 18% more likely to apply to at least one college
  • 19% more likely to be accepted to college
  • 24% more likely to submit the FAFSA