Add the University of Texas to the ever-growing list of colleges and universities who are branding scholarship initiatives intended to attract high-performing, low-income students.

This program — called Texas Advance — will provide nearly 1,000 scholarships to in-state students worth $20,000 over four years to allow further opportunities for students and provide a more diverse campus.

Straight from the UT News Bureau:

“Making our campus as accessible as possible to students of all backgrounds is extremely important, and Texas Advance is designed to ensure we are helping the students who need it most,” said David Laude, senior vice provost of enrollment and curriculum services.

In total, students can earn up to $15,000 per year when Texas Advance is combined with available Pell and TEXAS Grants, which is enough to cover the cost of tuition, books and fees at UT Austin. Additionally, Texas Advance students are admitted to their first-choice colleges within the university.

Many universities across the country are doing more to address the needs of low-income and first-generation students. A few examples include The Carolina Covenant at the University of North Carolina, the High Achieving Involved Leaders at the University of Michigan, the William & Mary Promise and the Rutgers Future Scholars.

At Cities of Promise, we applaud any and every effort to remove the fiscal peril for high-performing students from low-income backgrounds.