Common App Partners with the Davis New Mexico Scholarship

As Common App works towards its moonshot goal of increasing the number of low- and middle-income students applying to postsecondary opportunities, it’s imperative that we find ways to expand access to these opportunities. To work towards that goal, Common App has partnered with the Davis New Mexico Scholarship (DNMS) to expand college access for first-generation and low-income students in New Mexico. Starting this fall, the DNMS application will be available through the Common Application platform, enabling students to apply for the scholarship through the same process they use to apply to colleges and universities nationwide.

The Davis New Mexico Scholarship has awarded nearly $45 million in scholarships to first-generation college students over the past decade, boasting a four-year graduation rate of over 90%. By joining forces with Common App, the Davis New Mexico Scholarship aims to further increase college access in New Mexico, a state where college application completion remains low. Sam Ritter, Director of the Davis New Mexico Scholarship, emphasized, "Transitioning our application to the Common App will streamline the process for students and make life easier for school counselors. We aim to ensure every first-generation college student in New Mexico has the resources and support they need to pursue higher education, and this is an important milestone in making that happen."

To provide more insight into the Davis New Mexico Scholarship and its impact, we asked Sam Ritter some questions:

Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the Davis New Mexico Scholarship and its history?

The Davis New Mexico Scholarship started with a college access program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The founder, philanthropist Andrew Davis, saw the potential of first-generation college students from our state and wanted to support them all the way to college graduation. Together with college counselors and the students themselves, we created a program that would bring the talents of students from New Mexico—a state often at the bottom of educational statistics in our country—to colleges and universities around the country.

We started ten years ago with five intrepid scholars. I literally handed many of them a plane ticket and said, “Go to this college. You’ll do well there!” We’ve grown tremendously in reach and sophistication since then. Now, thanks to a $10 million annual commitment from the Davises, we have over 200 scholars enrolled in six partner colleges around the country. Instead of drawing students from a single college access partner, we now have scholars coming from all parts of northern New Mexico—from the Navajo Nation in the northwest part of our state to the rural prairie communities on the Texas border to the east.

We are a first-dollar scholarship, and together with our Partner Colleges, we guarantee a 100% Cost of Attendance scholarship for four years for every one of our scholars. Over 95% of our students are on track to graduate in four years, and we are building a thriving network of alumni here in New Mexico to welcome our students home after they earn their degrees.

Common App has placed an emphasis on expanding access in regions where application completion lags. Could you expand on the current challenges New Mexico students face and how the DNMS aims to address those challenges?

In many parts of New Mexico, Common App completion is virtually nonexistent. Last year, in half of New Mexico’s counties, not a single student completed the Common Application. For students and counselors, the Common App is unknown territory, and the pieces of the application—from the essay to the idea that a high school would have a “profile”—are concepts that students and schools have no familiarity with.

So, we’re starting with the basics: Helping students and counselors know that there is an application that students can use for colleges and that these colleges actually want students from New Mexico to apply to them! In every school, there are adults who want to push students to apply to colleges around the country and students who are interested in attending college outside of New Mexico. The challenge is simply that they don’t know the path forward to get there.

That’s why we focus a lot of our time and energy on bringing college admissions representatives to high schools throughout the state. Once students, counselors, and administrators understand that there are young people who would be welcome at and receive financial aid from many Common App member colleges, school staff and teachers are quick to understand how the Common App can be an important part of a student’s path to the best-fit college for them.

It’s also why we chose to host our scholarship application on the Common App. The Davis New Mexico Scholarship has a significant presence in northern New Mexico, and we know that students have historically been more likely to fill out our application than the Common Application. We also know that, particularly for first-generation college students, hitting “submit” once on your application makes you much more likely to submit to more colleges and opportunities. We have long required students to complete a Common App to be considered for our scholarship, and this was a natural evolution that we knew would drive even more students to use the Common App and find colleges and universities where they can thrive.

How does the Davis New Mexico Scholarship work?

The Davis New Mexico Scholarship is open to first-generation college students who are enrolled in one of our affiliated college access programs or high schools. We award the scholarship to students in November of their senior year of high school, and they then go on our caseload—our staff becomes part of their college counseling team.

Over the course of their senior year, we take scholars on college visits to our Partner Colleges, host individualized college and financial aid counseling meetings with students’ families, and help students complete applications to colleges outside of our network. Then, in April, students and families can compare financial aid and scholarship offers—including ours—and make the decision about which school is best for them.

All in all, it’s a process built to empower first-generation students and their families to make choices about higher education that are best for them without making the decision based solely on finances, like so many young people in our country are compelled to do.

Throughout this whole process, we form a strong bond with students that helps us provide ongoing support while they’re enrolled in college. Over the four years students are enrolled, we work with them to make sure they’re on track academically, finding their way socially, and using their summers productively for internships and other career-focused opportunities.

Common App has set a moonshot goal of closing its equity gap. Can you speak to how targeting first-generation college students and giving them greater access to financial help will contribute to that goal?

At the Davis New Mexico Scholarship, we get to see firsthand how simply applying to college can change the trajectory of a single family. Even if an older sister or cousin doesn’t end up attending a school they applied to or heard about through the application process, the next family member who graduates high school might. And if that student is admitted—and receives enough financial aid to make that college a reasonable choice—at that point, it is not just the application equity gap that gets closed, but the other yawning equity gaps in our society as well.

I often see first-generation college students write, “I am my ancestor’s wildest dreams” on their graduation caps. It’s more than an evocative phrase. It speaks to the way that families have been working for generations to provide the next generation with the chance to find a better, more stable life. Opening doors to a college education is the next phase of a progression toward a better society for all of us.

We also know that less than 25% of first-generation college students will graduate with their degrees within six years from their start date and that the number one reason that students leave school is lack of financial resources. If we funded first-generation college students at a rate that made their college careers financially sustainable, we would go a long way towards closing not only the application gap but actually closing the graduation gap—which, in the long run, is the real key to closing the opportunity gaps in our country.