Loper is excited to support College Advising Corps at their annual Summit and with adviser success resources this school year! College Advising Corps (CAC) partners with institutions around the country to place near-peer counselors in underresourced secondary schools.

College Advising Corps’ near-peer model

Since starting in 2005 at the University of Virginia, College Advising Corps has used a unique "near-peer" model to boost college enrollment and success rates among under-resourced high school students.

Near-peers are

• Close in age to their advisees, which allows them to share their recent personal experiences
• From similar backgrounds as students and can relate to emotional challenges and cultural contexts
• College graduates who act as mentors and role models
• Trained by College Advising Corps in match-fit and discovery, college selection, application completion, and financial aid navigation

The near-peer approach ensures fresh, relevant, and empathetic guidance, promoting equity in access to postsecondary education. Through this model, CAC aims to level the playing field, ensuring every student, regardless of background, has the resources and motivation to pursue higher education. As Ben, a former CAC Adviser, put it while presenting about fit alongside Loper’s founding team at his state’s Association for College Admissions Counseling conference:

Evaluating college options has become more transactional than transformational given today’s perception of postsecondary education. Students need resources that make it exciting to assess what life can look like after graduation.

How Loper supports match and fit

Loper's free app helps students explore the interests, constraints, and aspirations that define their match and fit. By providing all students engaging ways to learn about college and discover programs, Loper meets students where they are to help them find their best next step. Resources like Loper help college advisers empower exploration for their students and understand postsecondary priorities. Elauna on the Training and Development Team at CAC provides her perspective:

Advisers are faced with the challenge of supporting hundreds of students with varying levels of postsecondary preparation, financial backgrounds, and situational barriers as they research, apply, and transition to their best match and fit postsecondary plan. With all the nuances of postsecondary advising, providing advisers with useful resources is imperative as it allows them to maximize their time with students and amplify the impact of their efforts.

In addition to the phone app for students, Loper supports counselors with its free web counselor portal. In the counselor portal, advisers can:

• See students’ responses to Loper’s prompts and trends across a caseload
• View a student’s saved schools and recommend additional options
• Assess a student’s needs, wants, and aspirations for life after high school

Loper’s portal is free for any educator advising students on their postsecondary journey.

Loper’s support for CAC

Since launching, Loper has supported individual CAC advisers around the country. This year, Loper is supporting CAC's nationwide network with an exclusive program for advisers to promote match and fit exploration in their schools.

Within this partnership, Loper is providing training and development resources alongside its free platform to provide CAC advisers a suite of methods to encourage postsecondary exploration. CAC advisers also have access to an exclusive success program designed to reward advisers and their students for postsecondary education in their high schools.

CAC's role is to help students find and gain access to a best-fit postsecondary pathway. Loper's mission is to help students find their best fit education. Loper's support program for CAC brings a new, engaging resource to advisers around the country striving to help their students find their fit.