College is a dream you can achieve!

Apply to the College Access Program

EST is the smart pathway to college. Our students graduate from top schools with competitive degrees and little to no debt. Remember, college IS a dream you can achieve.

Your first step is to apply to our College Access Program. From there, we’re on your team. The deadline to apply is May 1 of every year.

What Our Students Say About EST

“Educating Students Together really changed the whole course of my life. I can honestly say that I would never have been at USC on a $350,000 scholarship without them. ”

I would be so lost and behind in the college process without being in EST. Yes, it was a lot of work, but I am grateful I had the guidance to get it done. Thank you, EST!

"EST was so incredibly helpful in guiding me through the college application process and finding money for school. Because EST assisted me with getting scholarships that helped me pay for school, I graduated with no student debt."

"Going on the college tour changed everything for me. Coming to North Carolina A&T was the best decision I ever made. I have a friend who also majored in math. She stayed in California and attended U.C. Riverside. Her experience was nothing like mine. I felt supported from the moment I stepped on campus. Unfortunately, she did not."

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Recommend the program to their peers.
%
Feel the program helped them pursue their goals.
%
Utilized the skills and knowledge gained from participating in the program.
about-cap-hero

About the College Access Program (CAP)

Finding your dream school is the easy part of the college-going process. Finding money to pay for college can be a challenge, but EST will be there with you every step of the way. Over the years, we have helped hundreds of students get outside scholarships, including four-year, full-ride scholarships. However, students must understand that the scholarship search process does not start when you receive your admissions offer. It begins the summer before your senior year.

How Our Program Works

September 1
Application Opens
September 15 to May 1
Scholars Selected
Mid-May
Mandatory Orientation
7 Week Summer Program
Summer Academy
September to May
College Prepration and Scholarship Club
Mid-June
Scholar Appericiation Day

Summer Institute

Make the most of your summer. Join EST at Cal State L.A. for a free week-long boot camp to learn more about our college programs.

The Summer Institute is a dynamic, week-long program designed to prepare high school students for success in college and beyond. Our comprehensive workshops and interactive sessions cover everything from SAT/ACT preparation to building a standout activities list through the creation of brag sheets. Students will craft elevator pitches, refine college essays, and participate in mock interviews for scholarships and admissions, gaining invaluable tools to stand out in the competitive college application process.

Beyond academic preparation, the Summer Institute focuses on personal growth and future planning. Sessions on social-emotional learning, financial literacy, and career development empower students to navigate challenges and make informed decisions about their futures. With opportunities to develop central passion scripts and videos, explore college options, and build confidence through hands-on activities, students leave the program equipped with the skills, knowledge, and mindset needed to start the college application process.

After the summer, EST provides continuous support through the Scholarship Club, offering year-round monthly support and ongoing standardized test preparation on weekends. This consistent support is designed to help scholars and their parents identify institutional and private scholarships to minimize student loan debt. The College Access Program’s success is further enhanced by the support of approximately 50 volunteer mentors who provide students with timely feedback on their college and scholarship essays.

Making it to Your Dream School

EST helps students to get scholarships and accepted to their Dream Schools. Our students have attended some of the top colleges and universities in the country. If you can dream it, EST can help you achieve it. 

colleges

Apply for Scholarships

Below are our recommendations on how to get free money to go to college. Remember that before you take out any loans and find yourself owing thousands of dollars, you should apply for grants and scholarships first. It is a sad but true statement that many of these grants and scholarships go unused because students fail to apply for them or to send in the application by the deadline.

Don’t let that happen to you! Get organized, ensure you read the scholarship criteria, and send in all of the material requested on time. This oftentimes becomes the difference between those students who receive these scholarships and those who don’t. One of the best things about scholarships is that, for the most part, they reward the applicants who put forth the most effort. The financial assistance obtained through scholarships is worth it, even if you don’t receive money from each scholarship you apply to every year.

Scholarships

Community College Partnership Scholarships

Check out the scholarships being offered to transfer students from a variety of partnership schools. Please note that many of these scholarships are departmental so we encourage you to contact the department chair no later than October of every year at the HBCU you are planning to transfer to in the fall to find out about all of the available scholarships. See some of the scholarships being offered [PDF].

Scholarships Online.Org

Scholarships Online.Org is the largest online directory of legit scholarships, education grants, and financial aid opportunities. Every year, more than $50 billion dollars in such college funding is given away by corporations, organizations, and government agencies. Scholarship opportunities are organized by your major and the month you need to apply.

Affordable Colleges

Scholarships and Financial Aid for Minorities: 

According to research, the average cost of tuition for an in-state student at a public university in the United States has increased by 296% over the past 20 years. At the same time, wages in the U.S. have barely grown in that same time. College students are graduating with more debt than ever.

http://www.affordablecolleges.com/resources/scholarships-for-minorities/#african-american-students

FAFSA

Start here because this is grant money that the federal government will give you to go to college if you meet certain income qualifications. FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The beauty of this grant (also known as the Pell grant program) is that you do not have to pay it back. Also, once you qualify for the program it can continue for the four years that you are in college, unless your family income changes. However, you won’t know if you qualify for this grant if you don’t apply. Do it today!

College Financial Aid Advice

From grants and scholarships to student loans, we can help guide you. Consider us your free college financial aid consultant. We have some great College Scholarship Lists that are free to browse, and we never request any personal information from you! For some fun reading and scholarship contests, check out our list of Easy Scholarships.

To apply for most financial aid, you will need your FSA ID and complete your FAFSA application

Fast Web

Fast web is currently the largest scholarship search engine on the internet. Fast web’s scholarship database contains 1.3 million scholarships worth over $3 billion. So the odds are in your favor that you will find free money to go to college. As you search for scholarships, just be careful not to get sucked into any of the advertisements posted on these sites.

GMSP.org

www.gmsp.org, Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this program is more than just a scholarship. The GMS program offers Gates Millennium Scholars with Academic Empowerment (ACE) services to encourage academic excellence; mentoring services for academic and personal development; and an online resource center that provides internship, fellowship and additional scholarship information.

Don’t miss this one! They provide thousands of dollars in scholarships. You must be Pell grant eligible and apply by the deadline which is usually in January. Applications for this scholarship usually open during the summer.

Scholarships.com

www.scholarships.com allows you to conduct a free scholarship search for hundreds of different colleges. Again, just make sure that you skip all of the advertisements that will detract you from your search.

Collegeboard.com

The College Board is the organization that is responsible for the Scholastic Achievement Test better known as the SAT. The College Board created an online scholarship web search to help you locate scholarships, internships, grants, and loans that match your education level, talents, and background

UNCF.org

The United Negro College Fund offers scholarships for students attending any of its member colleges. There are 39 HBCU’s that are a part of UNCF. Check this website to find out if the college that you plan to attend is one of them and then begin applying. Click on the “students” link and then the drop down menu to get the most current list of scholarships.

Thurgood Marshall College Fund

The Thurgood Marshall College Fund is named for the U.S. Supreme Court‘s first African-American Justice, Thurgood Marshall. The organization was established in 1987 to support public HBCUs. Over the years, TMCF has championed higher education at public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). TMCF has blossomed from a small organization providing scholarships to a powerhouse of resources for public HBCUs, raising over $200 million for programmatic support, capacity building support and scholarships for its member-schools.

CollegeAnswer.com

www.collegeanswer.com, or Sallie Mae is the nation’s leading provider of student loans. However, this website created by Sallie Mae provides access to a scholarship database containing more than 3 million scholarships worth over 16 billion dollars, and is expanded and updated daily.

How to Prep for the ACT –
https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/act-resource-guide/

How to Prepare for the SAT –
https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/sat-resource-guide/

Both have resources to help prepare students, explains how the scoring takes place, and breaks down the different sections of the exam that the students will be taking. These are great guides to help students to feel as prepared as possible.

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