The Coalition is founded when a group of admissions leaders from public and private institutions with a shared commitment to access, affordability and student success come together to push for collaboration and innovation in the college access space. 

The original application launches. A key feature: an easy-to-use application fee waiver process, which allows students to simply answer a short questionnaire to be granted a waiver. More than 385,000 Coalition application fee waivers have been granted over 10 years, helping ensure the cost of applying never holds a student back.

The Coalition launches the CCID Registry, a national, vetted list of community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide free college counseling. The Registry helps build relationships among colleges and college access organizations in order to help more students achieve their college goals. At its start, the CCID Registry included 150 CBOs; 10 years later, the list has grown to nearly 600.

The Coalition hosts its first Coalition Day events, bringing together member colleges to share free, trusted information about college admissions with communities around the country. Colleges and universities working together to support students on their path to college remains a central focus of the Coalition’s work.

The Coalition grows to more than 150 member institutions, nearly doubling in size since its founding. Even across a diversity of members – public, private, large, small, selective and open access – Coalition members collectively outperform national graduation rates by 43%.

The Coalition launches one of the first national virtual college fairs in response to the pandemic and attracts more than 10,000 registrations, helping students and colleges connect during lockdown. Today, the Coalition’s regular virtual events continue to bring admissions and financial aid expertise to all.

The Coalition launches a new website featuring a library of support resources in My Coalition Counselor. To date, these resources – created with admissions and financial aid counselors – have been viewed more than 600,000 times, and have reached hundreds of thousands more on social media.

The inaugural cohort of Coalition Ambassadors is announced. Four years later, the program has provided professional development for more than 60 rising leaders in the fields of admissions and financial aid who are passionate about college access.

Apply Coalition with Scoir launches. This new, integrated approach to the application streamlines the process for students, counselors and colleges. With robust college and career tools, a network of supporters, and a college application all in one place, students can accomplish more of the journey to college from a single account.

In partnership with Schoolhouse.world, the Coalition launches College Admissions Workshops, free, virtual, small-group tutoring on college admissions topics. In its first year, the program has served thousands of learners across four workshop offerings.