Our Results
Minds Matter Bay Area (MMBay) has a transformative impact on our mentees, each of whom has a demonstrated need for our programs and services. 100% of our students are from low-income backgrounds, and 91% of our students are the first in their families to go to college.
Transformative Experiences for Mentees
Measuring MMBay’s impact over time, 100% of our mentees have been accepted into 4-year colleges, and 75% of our students are attending a top US college. 100% of our alumni are on track to graduate within 4 years. We help our students find and secure scholarships that cover 75% of their college costs.
Overview
MMBay produces results far greater than the national average. Our students—compared with peers from similar backgrounds—are 25X as likely to attend a selective college that prepares them for career and beyond.
As a result of our test instruction, the average MMBay student in the Class of 2023 improved over 257 points on a 1600 SAT scale. The results of our test prep are far above industry standards, and we provide this world-class support to students for free. The data set of reported scores for 2023 was limited, with fewer students opting to sit for the standardized tests after the University of California system and other colleges across the country stated that they no longer require SAT and ACT scores for admission. MMBay still offers test instruction for all of our students, to ensure they prepare the most competitive application even for colleges where test score submissions are optional.
Minds Matter Bay Area offers weekly on-site standardized test prep and skills-based curriculum from volunteer instructors with an approximate 1:2 instructor-student ratio. We have a proven in-house test prep curriculum. Our instructors spend two hours every week teaching students a skills-based curriculum that historically has produced measurable improvement on their SAT & ACT results.
Test Improvement
Class of 2023 Test Score Improvement
*Due to colleges across the country dropping SAT and ACT testing requirements, the score improvement reflects data for students who took the SATs.
College Admissions and Graduations
At Minds Matter Bay Area, we encourage our students to pursue colleges of their dreams, and help them secure significant financial aid in the form of merit- and need-based scholarships, so that cost isn’t a barrier and debt remains low. When recommending colleges to students, we’ve cultivated our own list of colleges that emphasize a school’s ability to support underrepresented minority (URM) students. These top schools, including some Ivy Leagues, offer the strongest financial aid packages and invest robust resources into ensuring that low-income URM students graduate from their institutions within four years and with low debt.
The goal of our program is to ensure that students graduate within four years from competitive four-year colleges with low debt, to put them on a true path toward careers of their dreams that help them change their socio-economic trajectory. At MMBay, our mission is to ensure that within one generation, our students can experience transformational change in their own access to opportunity, and can pay the resources they build in their lifetimes forward to their own families and communities.
In our 13 years as an organization, 100% of MMBay’s graduates have received admission into four-year colleges, 75% of our students are attending a top US college, and 100% of our alumni are on track to graduate within 4 years. We help our students find and secure scholarships that cover 75% of their college costs. Year over year, MMBay’s students continue to attend competitive schools as measured by the Barron's Profiles of American Colleges.
For the Class of 2023, 100% of our mentees were accepted into 4-year colleges, and 73% of our students were admitted to a top US college*. Over 40% of our students were admitted to a Tier 1 competitive private school (e.g. Harvard, Santa Clara) or University of California system public school (UC Berkeley). In addition, the Class of 2023 mentees received scholarships that helped them meet 70% of their financial needs.
Class of 2023 College Admissions
Minds Matter Bay Area maintains a vibrant volunteer culture and provides such rewarding experiences to students that it results in high retention rates across the board. It is a testament to our results and impact on the community that so many volunteers and mentees choose to stay in our organization year after year.
Satisfaction and Retention
We are proud to share that our program will retain 85% of our volunteers, and over 90% of our students, year over year.
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, we continued to hold mentoring and instruction sessions, and maintained high attendance rates. Our most recent Net Promoter (NPS) scores are:
In response to the statement “I would recommend this volunteer opportunity to a friend”, we scored at 60 (against a goal of 50)
In response to the statement “I would recommend MMBay as an organization making an impact”, we scored at 77 (against a goal of 50)
The “gold standard” NPS score for the best nonprofits in the world is 50. Our results exceed that gold standard by a strong margin.
“My mentors taught me how to take meaningful risks, ask for help, and accept help.”
Angeline R.
MMBay Class of 2022
U.C. Berkeley Class of 2026