Header Media

Many people sit in an auditorium and listen to a speaker in an orange dress in front of a projector screen
Six students wearing blue A Better Chance tshirts; four pose and hold a fifth while the sixth crouches below
A student with medium brown skin and black hair in a ponytail speaks to an adult across a table


If you have questions, we hope you will find answers here. 

Still want to know something else?  Please contact us.  

What is A Better Chance?

A Better Chance is a nonprofit organization that launched in 1963. Our mission is to increase substantially the number of well-educated young people of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.

How long has A Better Chance been around?

We have been proudly serving our Scholars for 56 years! We encourage you to learn more about why and what has happened in the the intervening years at the link below.

How does A Better Chance work?

We help talented students of color and their families access and succeed in first-class college preparatory education, and to form a support network that can help them throughout their lives. 

The support we provide includes guidance, awareness and skill-building and enrichment opportunities.  Because people often ask - we are not a scholarship-granting organization, but we do help hard-working students and their families to access scholarships. 

The College Preparatory Schools Program (CPSP) is the main instrument through which A Better Chance executes its mission. To access its support, a student must first become a Scholar.  Below are some links to in-depth information about what that means, how to get started, and what a Scholar's journey looks like.

How many Scholars does A Better Chance have enrolled right now?

As of the 2018-19 school year, we have 2,222 Scholars actively enrolled! 

How many A Better Chance Scholars have graduated from the program?

We have over 16,000 amazing Alumni!

How many college preparatory schools work with A Better Chance?

We have a total of 352 Member Schools in our program; 220 Independent Day Schools, 111 Independent Boarding Schools, and 21 Community Day Schools.

How much scholarship money do A Better Chance Scholars earn?

We helped leverage $19 million in financial aid for our new Scholars in 2018.

What is the college graduation rate of A Better Chance Scholars?

85% of A Better Chance Alumni have graduated from college within six years! This is compared to 57% of all students nationally. 83% of our Alumni have earned their Bachelor’s degree. 50% of them went on to earn a Master’s degree or some other type of professional degree.

Why only students of color?

A Better Chance was founded in 1963 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and less than a decade after the historic Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, which ended legal discrimination in public education.

We were founded when visionary private school leaders agreed to be part of a solution by providing students of color with the opportunity to enroll in their institutions, and help balance the scales of education equality. This goal is stated in our charter.

While progress has been made over the past fifty years, the reality is that significant gaps in academic achievement based on race still exist. Many students of color are unable to realize their full potential because they lack access to a quality education. America’s capacity to develop diverse leaders and strengthen its economic and societal progress are hampered by these inequalities. Our mission increases the number of well-educated students of color and helps them assume positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.

How many staff members work for A Better Chance?

There are 26 members of A Better Chance's small but mighty team, all working toward our Scholars' success.

Where is A Better Chance?

Our main office is located in New York, NY, but we serve students of color nationally.  We also have 5 regional offices for the Northeast, Middle States, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest.