Advancing equitable scholarship awarding through outreach: Results from 2023–2024 partnerships

In the 2023–2024 application season, Common App expanded its partnership with Scholarship America and added new partners to connect low- and middle-income students to scholarship opportunities.

The changes include:

• Students who received both email and in-app notifications were four times more likely to receive a scholarship compared to those who received no outreach at all.
• Underrepresented students who received combined outreach had more than double the application rate to participating scholarships compared to those who received no outreach at all.
• The outreach efforts resulted in an 18% increase in both first-generation and underrepresented minority applicants to the scholarship partners' applicant pools.
• The intervention resulted in over $4.8 million in additional scholarship funds directed to underrepresented students over the next four years.
• Over $350,000 in additional scholarship funds was allocated to underrepresented students over a four-year period.

These findings underscore the effectiveness of integrated outreach strategies in enhancing access to scholarship opportunities for underrepresented students.