GREENSBORO – Officials at UNC Greensboro have a firm grasp on who their students are: 34% are first-generation college students. 51% are eligible for low-income Pell Grants. 51% are non-white. 26% are from rural counties.

That means paying special attention to students’ needs in curriculum, advising and financial aid, Andrew Hamilton, UNCG’s Associate Vice Provost for Student Success, says in the accompanying video.

The university also has a significant number of community-college transfer students who sometimes exhaust their eligibility for Pell Grants before they finish their studies, Hamilton says.

“We have some of them that are close to graduating,” he says. “So we monitor that list very carefully and say, ‘OK, we have to come up with Pell replacement dollars for this student that’s maxed out, so we can get them through.’”

Because more than a third of UNCG students are the first in their family to go to college, UNCG has also developed an Academic Success Coaching Program for first-year students.

Graduate students are trained to act as coaches for a select group of students, helping them create goals and plans, build networks of support, or make appointments with academic advisors or professors.

“These are the folks that are sort of ‘in their corner,’ is how we’ve had students describe the experience with a coach,” says Samantha Raynor, Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success. “To just give them the confidence to try something new, to make that appointment, to take that step to further their success.”

Similarly, the UNCG Guarantee, a scholarship program for high-achieving low-income students, offers a variety of personalized supports, Raynor says.

“We want to create highly structured pathways for those students,” says Hamilton, “so they can hit their stride, get out more or less on time. 

“And we’re paying close attention to how much student debt they’re taking on at the same time,” he says. “It’s not enough to complete – the completion has to bring value to your life with it.”