Duke enters partnership with Say Yes to Education

Duke was recently announced as a partner school of Say Yes to Education, Inc., a non-profit group that helps underprivileged students apply to and pay for college.

As one of the organization’s several dozen partner schools, Duke will ensure free tuition to any Say Yes scholar that is accepted with an annual family income of less than $75,000. Although the University’s financial aid plan is already designed to provide this support, becoming a partner with Say Yes presents a new opportunity to inform high-achieving, low-income students about Duke, said Allison Rabil, assistant vice provost and director of financial aid. The University is one of five institutions that entered into the organization’s College Compact on Monday, with the others being Georgetown University, Harvard University, Northwestern University and Notre Dame University.

 “Duke forever has been committed to need-blind admissions and full demonstrated financial aid,” said Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki. “The whole Say Yes partnership is about identifying students from low-income backgrounds and helping them to understand how to get into these schools to the extent that they can.” 

Because the University’s financial aid plan already meets the standards of Say Yes, no changes were needed to become a partner school, Rabil said. 

“We didn’t have any trouble signing off, because we’re already doing what they’re asking,” she said. 

Nowicki said that the partnership appealed to Duke in large part because of the potential to spread information about the University and its financial aid. Low-income students often automatically assume that Duke would be too expensive for them, he noted.

“It connects us with students who might be well-qualified and interested in Duke but had never thought they could afford it,” Rabil said.

Dean of Admissions Christoph Guttentag noted that although the University makes its own efforts to reach disadvantaged students, organizations such as Say Yes can help to communicate more broadly and effectively. 

“If they heard it from us alone, it wouldn’t necessarily cut through the noise that a Duke education—or education at a place like Duke—is possible for them,” Guttentag said.

In addition to educating its students on the college application process and facilitating financial aid, Say Yes offers services such as mentoring, tutoring and legal help. The organization, founded by financier George Weiss in 1987, currently has chapters in five northeastern cities—New York City, Philadelphia, Hartford, Conn., Cambridge, Mass. and Buffalo and Syracuse, N.Y.—but it has plans to expand nationally in coming years.  

Nowicki said that Say Yes approached Duke about its participation, and the University was happy to join as a partner.

“What they are presenting is very consistent with our existing policies, and in that respect, it seems a very natural fit,” Guttentag said.

Nowicki noted that this is not the first organization that Duke has partnered with in order to assert its commitment to need-blind admissions. Last year, the University signed an agreement with the Knowledge Is Power Program, a national network of charter schools that serves more than 41,000 students, 86 percent of whom are from low-income families and eligible for the federal free or reduced-price meals program. As a partner school of KIPP, Duke is able to further publicize itself as a viable option for low-income students, just as it will do with Say Yes.

“In the last three to four years, Duke as an institution has paid more attention to the issues facing low-income students and first-generation students and students from schools and communities that have fewer resources,” Guttentag said. “We pay attention to organizations that support them, we pay attention to being fair to them in the college admissions process, we pay attention to providing them support once they come to Duke.”

He noted that the problems facing underprivileged students have been the object of increasing attention in the past year—due in part to Fisher v. Texas, the Supreme Court case concerning affirmative action. The verdict in the case is imminent, but whatever it may be, Duke is committed to being an option for students of all backgrounds, Guttentag said. 

“We’ll always be interested in considering programs that both serve students and help us and are consistent with what our goals are and what our mission is,” Guttentag said. “We want smart students to have high aspirations, to realize that places like Duke are places they should aspire to and that in fact, it’s possible for students of every background to be able to succeed.”

This story was updated at 11:50PM on 6/12/13.