Established in 2013, Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) is a collaboration among Montgomery College, Montgomery County Public Schools, and the Universities at Shady Grove to help at-promise students establish a seamless path to a bachelor’s degree.
Montgomery College provides academic coaches to 11 targeted high schools. The coaches lend both academic and other types of support, using a case management approach to help students with test preparation, scheduling college visits, applying for college, and filling out financial aid/scholarship forms.
More than 950 students participated in ACES in its first year. More than 80 percent of participants indicated that they expect to receive a bachelor’s degree or higher in the future.
New data shows that our ACES students are actually out-performing other recent high school graduates who attend MC. Their return rates and their course-pass rates were higher than their counterparts as were their overall grade point averages.
Notably, last academic year, the Montgomery College Foundation awarded nearly $250,000 in scholarships to 144 ACES students.