The College-Going Niche: Investigating Students’ Experiences with College Readiness and GEAR UP

College is considered to be one of the best options for increasing social mobility;however, college access and completion rates are lower for low-income, African American, Latine, and Native American/Indigenous students. The GEAR UP program supports low-income students’ college awareness and readiness through a large intervention system including student and family services. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to understand GEAR UP’s impact on students' college-readiness indicators, the role parents/families have within students’ college-going process, the college competencies and/or indicators students believe colleges and universities should focus on, and how students from an urban school district within a low-income community perceive the college-going culture at their school. Through rigorous research involving difference-in-difference inspired analysis, rich descriptive analyses, and in-depth students focus groups, the recommendations from students based on their needs, are clear: the college field needs to be more student centered focused on the information and resources that are useful to students, maintaining strong relationships between students and staff and to involve student feedback in decision making