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| Early Awareness |  Unfortunately, the quantity of matriculated students depends on their income. It is noticed that nearly 48% of upper income students will have obtained a college degree at a four-year college by age 24, and only 7% of lower income students will reach the same goal. Usually high income students are still much more likely to get a college education than low income students.
Early awareness initiatives try to change the situation and increase the number of lower-income and at-risk students receiving a college education by inspiring them to think of college as a real possibility when they are young. A lo of lower-income children waive college when they are very young, as early as the first or second grade. They do not hope to get education at college, so they do not pursue a severe academic curriculum. They often miss of necessary preparation by the time they reach high school and change their minds. Early awareness programs intend to stop pipeline leakage when the students are young by inspiring them to plan for college and by providing them with training, advising, tutoring and enrichment activities. This increases the number of students attending challenging courses (especially math and science), the quantity of students graduating from high school, the number of students admitted to college, and eventually the number of students receiving college degrees.
The purpose of early awareness programs is to find out the barriers that prevent low-income students from receiving college degrees, and to remove the barriers or decrease their influence. Barriers can be financial, academic, extracurricular and social. Many early awareness programs propose scholarships as an incentive for students to graduate from school and prepare for college.
Notable Early Awareness Programs
The "I Have a Dream" Foundation (IHAD)
In the "I Have a Dream" (IHAD) program, sponsors select a group of 50-80 low-income students and agree to finance their college education if they prepare for college. The students are required a particular grade level from an elementary school or a particular age group from a public housing development. IHAD include not only funding. The sponsor help their students throughout their education, and can provide training, tutoring and enrichment activities. He encourages the students to prepare and to keep the dream alive.
GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs)
GEAR UP is a federal program pattern after the IHAD program. It was founded by the Higher Education Amendments of 1998. GEAR UP provides financing to states and partnerships to help increase the quantity of low-income students who are admitted to college. GEAR UP programs begin with a group of students chosen in elementary and middle school in high poverty areas, and provide them with services and resources through high school graduation. The aim of GEAR UP program is also to find out approaches that are successful and which can be replicated on a national scale.
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