In 2011, Bottom Line opened an office in Downtown Brooklyn. This year, we are serving 438 high school seniors in our Access Program and 2,629 college students in our Success Program.

ACCESS
Bottom Line Advisors work one-on-one with students to help them with every step of the college application process including:

  • College research and list-making
  • Application support including help with college essays and supplemental documents
  • Application packaging and submission
  • One-on-one support with completing the FAFSA, TAP application, and CSS Profile
  • Help with Opportunity Program verification (HEOP, EOP, SEEK)
  • Analyzing and comparing aid packages
  • Choosing the best-fit college

During meetings, Advisors lead students through a structured process for researching and applying to colleges, applying for financial aid, and making college decisions. By building a strong relationship with each student during frequent one-hour meetings, Advisors help students work through any obstacles they may face during the process and ultimately select a college that suits their personal, academic, and financial needs. Historically, more than 95% of students from each Access cohort have committed to attend college.

SUCCESS
As a first step to succeeding in college, students participate in transitional programming over the summer between high school and college, which includes group workshops and events, as well as one-on-one enrollment assistance, financial aid advising, and general problem-solving to ensure students successfully matriculate in the fall.

Bottom Line continues to support students once they enroll in college. Throughout students’ entire time in college, we offer consistent, comprehensive, and proactive support until they graduate, for up to six years. Programming is driven by semi-annual and annual milestones for student progress in four areas:

  • academic Degree
  • Employability
  • Affordability
  • Life skills

This is known as our DEAL model. These milestones are tailored to a student’s year in school and are used to gauge progress toward graduation. Examples of milestones include credit accumulation, GPA, fit of major, and career-related experience. 

In NYC, many groups provide college access services, but few have developed a model for serving students once they are on campus. Bottom Line provides college retention support to students from other youth-serving organizations. Because of this, we are able to serve a greater number of students who would benefit from support during college and accomplish what smaller, individual organizations cannot on their own - support their students at numerous campuses across the state.

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