About
Our department prepares and enriches students through the K-12 years for their destination. Assisting students and parents while successfully transitioning into college. Effectively supporting students until they achieve their goal of earning a college degree.
The Educational Talent Search (ETS) program supports students from underrepresented backgrounds complete high school, apply and enroll in the postsecondary/college of their choice, secure financial resources, and graduate with a post-secondary education credential. ETS primarily focuses on serving 9th-12thgrade students. The program provides its students with academic advising, career exploration, financial aid/scholarship and college admissions assistance, college tours, cultural events, and other educational enrichment opportunities. In essence, ETS supports students in navigating the postsecondary application process.
ETS works closely with our partner high schools to ensure students are receiving services that will guide and prepare them to apply to the postsecondary institutions of their choice. Our ETS program currently serves six high schools in Monterey County and a total of 1,175 students. We have experienced a great deal of success in helping our students achieve their goals. For example,ETS seniors had a 100% high school graduation attainment, with 70% of those students being A-G eligible. We are extremely proud to say that 93% of ETS seniors enrolled in a postsecondary institution!
Learn more on ETS website, follow their Instagram page @csumb_ets or like them on FaceBook @ETSatCSUMB!
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is a grant program under the U.S. Department of Education that aims to increases the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education by providing States and local community-educational partnerships via six-to-seven year grants to offer support services to high-poverty, middle and high schools. GEAR UP works directly with partner high schools to serve an entire cohort of students.
GEAR UP works in coordination with our schools to provide students access to critical early college awareness and support activities like tutoring, mentoring, academic preparation, financial education to improve access to higher education for low income, minority and disadvantaged first-generation students and their families.
Learn more on the Gear Up website at or follow their Instagram page @gearupcsumb
Upward Bound (UB) is a pre-college program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that works to prepare first-generation, low-income, and at-promise* students realize their dreams of pursuing post-secondary education. Upward Bound has been serving the Central Coast for almost two decades. The support of Upward Bound extends beyond the one on one academic advising provided to participants at their high school, as the program seeks to develop participants' professional skills such as resume writing and interview skills. We also aim to provide innovative and experiential trips such as exploring the native sea life on our coasts through kayaking and getting a hands-on experience of the laws of motion while riding a roller coaster! Our goal is to empower our participants to take control of their academics and expose them to new and exciting opportunities with the ultimate goal to prepare them academically and socially for enrollment and completion of post-secondary education.
Learn more on the Upward Bound website, follow their Instagram page @upwardboundcsumb or like them on FaceBook @csumb.upwardbound!
Vision: Provide an exciting curriculum and an inspirational and transformational College and Career Exploration Summit for all Santa Cruz County seventh-grade students in collaboration with California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB); Cabrillo College; the School Districts of the City and County of Santa Cruz and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Schools will split between CSUMB and UCSC on an annual basis. Once a year students come to the CSUMB campus and have a program to educate and motivate them about postsecondary education- Financial Aid, Admissions, A-G Requirements, and Tours. Learn more on S5C.
Students will find connections to the school work they are doing now to future college and career possibilities. They will gain an understanding of their college and career aspirations, confidence to achieve goals and specific steps for their pathway to success. Students will arrive on campus prepared for the day’s activities and will leave the campus and enter eighth-grade with a clearer sense of intention, a plan, options available to pay for college and excitement for their future.
Vision: Provide an exciting curriculum and an inspirational and transformational College and Career Exploration Summit for all Santa Cruz County seventh-grade students in collaboration with California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB); Cabrillo College; the School Districts of the City and County of Santa Cruz and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Schools will split between CSUMB and UCSC on an annual basis.
Serve more than 3,100 sixth-graders from around Monterey County. Students visit Cal State Monterey Bay this week to make and to receive a promise.
The University Promise program, which is designed to increase the number of local students who eventually seek a college degree, asks students to make a pledge to complete the required coursework to earn admission to a CSU campus. In return, CSUMB will guarantee them a place in a future entering class. Learn more about University Promise by using this.
Contact Pre-college Programs
Phone: 831-582-3960
Building: Ryan Ranch
Office Hours: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
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