Setting
The study was conduct with 194 Upward Bound projects in the United States: 98 projects were assigned to the treatment condition and 96 were assigned to the comparison condition. The Upward Bound projects participating in this study served diverse geographic locales: 49.0% City, 17.0% Suburb, 22.2% Town, and 11.9% Rural, as well as regions: 14.4% Northeast, 27.3% Midwest, 37.1% South, 19.6% West, and 1.5% Other.
Study sample
There were 98 treatment group projects serving 2,336 students and 96 comparison group projects serving 2,107 students. Across the sample of students, 64% identified as female; 38.6% as Black, non-Hispanic, 23.4% White, non-Hispanic, and 38% identified as another race. 25.8% identified as Hispanic. 87.6% indicated they were from a low-income household and 91.7% were first-generation to college. About 34.4% of treatment students had taken one more Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate course. Approximately half of students had B-level GPAs (52%) and approximately a quarter had C-level GPAs.
Intervention Group
Students in the intervention group received the "Find the Fit" intervention during their senior year of high school (School Year 2015-2016). The "Find the Fit" intervention added to the traditional Upward Bound activities by providing students with activities, exercises, and handouts about college costs, the logistics of applying to college, information about college quality, and how to grow and adapt. It also provided programmed and customized text messages two times per month from the end of the student's junior year through high school graduation with information about timelines for college applications, financial aid, and registering for college. Last, the program providing training webinars for advisors introducing them to the materials and reviewing the research base on program components so that the advisors could serve students. These three features were in addition to the traditional Upward Bound activities. Students were engaged in the intervention from the end of their junior year through the end of their senior year in high school.
Comparison Group
Upward Bound includes academic tutoring, guidance on high school course selection, college advising, college entrance exam preparation, college application assistance, federal financial aid information, assistance with completing financial aid applications, and financial literacy training for students and their families. Students participate in Upward Bound from the end of their junior year through the end of their senior year in high school.
Support for implementation
No information provided.