Notes Post College Board Forum

Last week I attended the College Board Forum, an annual gathering of admissions officers, counselors, and college access professionals from across the country. It was my first time attending as EMERGE's CEO. I want to share what I took away from it.

Colleges Are Looking for Partners Like Us

The clearest signal from the forum: selective colleges are actively looking for community-based organizations that can help them find and support talented students from underrepresented backgrounds.

It's strategy for them. Colleges are under pressure to build classes that reflect the diversity of the country, and they're realizing they can't do it alone. They need partners on the ground who have relationships with students, who can identify talent early, and who stay with those students through graduation.

That's what we do.

The conversations I had with admissions officers reinforced something I already believed: EMERGE is well-positioned in this landscape. We're not just a pipeline that gets students to the door. We stay with them. That matters to colleges, and it's a differentiator.

College Still Matters

There's a lot of noise right now questioning whether college is worth it. You've probably heard it too. Is the debt worth it? Are students actually getting jobs? Should more kids skip college and go straight to work?

Here's what the data says: Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce projects that by 2032, the economy will be at a deficit of 4.5 million workers with bachelor's degrees. Not certificates. Not associate degrees. Bachelor's degrees.

For students who lack access to the networks and resources that make navigating college possible, selective institutions remain one of the clearest paths to economic mobility. That's not ideology. It's math.

The skeptics aren't wrong that higher education has problems. But the answer isn't to tell our students to opt out. The answer is to make sure they get in and get through while we put pressure on the systems to change.

Early Decision Is Being Democratized

There were a few articles circulating recently about early decision and whether it disadvantages low-income students. The argument is that ED was designed for families who didn't need to compare financial aid packages, families who could commit to a school without worrying about cost.

There's truth to that history. But what's changing is that programs like EMERGE are coaching students from low-income backgrounds to apply early anyway. We're helping them understand that they can step away from a binding decision if the financial aid doesn't work, and making sure they're not leaving opportunity on the table because of a system that wasn't built with them in mind.

Your Work in This Moment

I share all of this because I want you to see how the work you do connects to the bigger picture. When you're helping a senior finalize an early decision application or coaching a junior on their college list, this is the context it sits in.

Colleges need what we offer. College still matters for our students. And we're changing who gets access to opportunities that used to be reserved for the privileged few.