They got into college. Getting to campus was another story.

Today marks the end of application season for the Polygence Scholars Foundation , our non-profit organization devoted to democratizing access to research opportunities. Each year, promising young people from all over the world receive full tuition scholarships to our mentorship programs, which help them develop crucial college and career readiness skills, gain clarity on potential majors and professions, and spark passions that will fuel the next chapter of their studies. This initiative stands as a cornerstone of our mission to empower the next generation of researchers through mentorship .?

It includes students like Mukue , a remarkable young woman who joined our program from Harare, Zimbabwe, after learning about Polygence through our sponsorship of the African Science Buskers Festival . With support from her Polygence mentor, Mukue also applied to U.S. schools and was accepted early decision to Bowdoin College . We are thrilled for this future Polar Bear !?

But for many students, the hurdles to a college degree don’t end with an acceptance letter. A gauntlet of other financial, logistical, and psychological challenges remain. So as the college admissions season enters its decision phase, it’s worth reflecting on problems that still pervade the system and affect the hard decisions families are making this time of year.?

The 2023-24 college application cycle began with lots of uncertainty following the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action and the increasingly fractured landscape of standardized testing requirements. All of that came before changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, the central mechanism by which colleges and universities determine financial aid eligibility for applicants. The delayed and error-ridden rollout of the updated FAFSA has left families flying blind into decision season and wondering what schools they will be able to afford. These converging factors have led to “the most confusing, chaotic college admissions season in years. ”

The #fafsafiasco arrives at a moment when faith in higher education has never been lower. The percentage of young adults who said a college degree is very important fell precipitously in the last decade from 74% in 2009 to 41% in 2019 . More and more families think it’s just not worth the money (in some cases, they’re not wrong). And for those who do decide to pursue a 4 year degree, research from Carnegie Higher Ed found tuition and financial aid remain amongst the most important selection criteria for prospective students .?

The percentage of young adults who said a college degree is very important fell precipitously in the last decade from 74% in 2009 to 41% in 2019.

If a bachelor’s degree is touted as a key to social mobility and economic success, then there are even more discouraging stats to consider. Recent findings from the Institute for Higher Education Policy show that 90% of students who received a Pell Grant—federal financial aid for low-income families—still cannot afford to attend.?

Now, there are many excellent organizations working hard to address these shortfalls: The Institute for College Access & Success , The California-based Campaign for College Opportunity , and Complete College America are just a few examples. I’ve seen the work of other great programs firsthand, including the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation , whose students Polygence has supported with scholarships as well.?

Yet the data and stories from these efforts also reveal how basic the challenges to college access can be. Some simply cannot afford to get from their home to campus. I’m reminded of a particularly poignant episode of the Against the Rules podcast by Michael Lewis , the financial journalist responsible for best-selling-books-turned-movies like Moneyball and The Big Short. While exploring the beneficial effects of coaching and mentorship, Lewis talks with educators about their efforts to help low-income, low-resourced kids get to college.?

He shares a sobering stat: only around 1 in 9 first generation college students completes a degree . There are numerous reasons for this terrible attrition rate, but they might be summed up by the fact that these students generally don’t have the communities, experiences, or safety nets that help their financially secure counterparts to graduate. Issues that might seem trivial can completely derail their education.?

Take Andy, a student from San Francisco who has been fortunate enough to receive a scholarship from Ohio Wesleyan University. Andy got help with applications from coaches at ScholarMatch , a college success organization founded in 2010 by the author Dave Eggers. From humble beginnings at a store selling pirate paraphernalia out of a storefront at 826 Valencia Street in San Francisco , ScholarMatch now serves more than 1,000 students across the county each year at every point of their college journey. And, after receiving his scholarship, it seemed that Andy would be one of their success stories.?

But the trouble began even before he got to campus. Andy’s flight to school was delayed in its arrival to Chicago, and after a gate agent tore up his now useless ticket, he found the doubts from his family—this far away college thing is a big mistake—echoing through his head during a fitful night of sleep in O’Hare International Airport. He decided at that moment that going to college wasn’t worth it and returned home. As Eggers framed this reaction, “When you are the first, it can be like heading out on a polar expedition to the north pole. Why would you go do that when you could be home?”?

"When you are the first, it can be like heading out on a polar expedition to the north pole. Why would you go do that when you could be home?”

Which brings us back to Mukue, whose flight from Zimbabwe to Maine will cost $1,700. To help her clear this financial hurdle (and to help buy some winter clothes for her first New England winter), her Polygence mentor has created a GoFundMe page .

Contributing is of course a deeply meaningful gesture that will make a huge difference in the trajectory of one young woman, but I hope that this story also sheds light on some of the systemic issues in higher education access that deserve more attention. With enough collective will—including the congressional advocacy efforts of educational planners like Jessica Chermak, LPC, CEP and Yvonne Espinoza, CEP —we can help make college more attainable for everyone.?

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