Our Results
Transformative Experiences for Mentees
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.
Measuring MMBay’s impact over time, 100% of our mentees have been accepted into 4-year colleges, and 74% of our students are attending a top US college. 100% of our alumni are on track to graduate within 5 years. We help our students find and secure scholarships that cover 81% 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 2024 improved over 300 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. While many colleges have chosen to remain test optional, some colleges have chosen to bring back the standardized test requirements. This is why MMBay continues to 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 2024 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 14 years as an organization, 100% of MMBay’s graduates have received admission into four-year colleges, 74% of our students are attending a top US college, and 100% of our alumni are on track to graduate within 5 years. We help our students find and secure scholarships that cover 81% 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 2024, 100% of our mentees were accepted into 4-year colleges, and 100% of our students were admitted to a top US college*. 83% of the Class of 2024 will be attending a top US College.
Over 54% 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 2024 mentees received scholarships that helped them meet 82% of their financial needs.
Class of 2024 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 81% of our volunteers, and 100% of our students, year over year.
Our incredible retention is a testament to the culture and community we’re building at MMBay, and is even more impressive considering the amount of time and effort we ask from our volunteers. The culture we’ve built - and continue to build - allows our community to build deep, meaningful relationships between mentors and mentees, relationships that encourage genuine connection and growth.
In response to the statement “How likely are you to recommend MMBay to a friend who is looking for an ongoing volunteer commitment?”, we scored at 59 (against a goal of 50)
In response to the statement “I would recommend MMBay as an organization making an impact”, we scored at 73 (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