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Stay informed about COVID-19 and the latest health and safety guidance for higher education.

GEAR UP

GEAR UP student at the Massachusetts College Application Celebration

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a federally-funded program designed to give more low-income students the skills, encouragement, and preparation needed to pursue postsecondary education and to strengthen academic programs and student services at participating schools.

GEAR UP Massachusetts serves low-income priority students in five cohorts across seven of the Commonwealth’s most impoverished areas: Boston, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Springfield, and Worcester. Target middle and high schools have poverty rates as high as 93%, and most of the largest are categorized as persistently lowest achieving State Improvement Grant (SIG) schools.

In addition to hands-on support in high school, the Office of Student Financial Assistance offers a scholarship for students who participated in GEAR UP and are pursuing higher education.


Did you Know?
screenshot from the CDEP video