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Fair Opportunity Project
Fair Opportunity Project provides comprehensive information, services, and support on all aspects of the college application and financial aid process. Our mission is to give students from all backgrounds a fair opportunity to understand, access, and afford the best college and career pathway for them. Our virtual support service model is available to students all over the US, particularly for students from low income and rural areas.
"I had a great experience with my essay review—it gave me a fresh perspective on my writing and helped me clarify my ideas. I learned how important it is to be concise and intentional with every sentence. The most valuable part was the detailed feedback that pointed out both strengths and areas to improve. Huge shoutout to my reviewer for being thorough, encouraging, and insightful!"
Sumi M, Florida
Attending University of South Florida
Programs
Instant and Expert Essay Review
One of the biggest lifts during the college application process is writing and refining personal or scholarship essays. Essays are a chance for students to speak directly to the specific college or organization. The influence of the essay can weigh heavily on the student. Our AI Essay Reviewer and Expert Essay Review help relieve some of that stress.
Fair Opportunity Project has created an AI Essay Reviewer to help students succeed in creating articulate and unique essays. This tool provides instant feedback on grammar and the flow of students’ essays. The model is trained on our decade-long experience of personally editing students' essays and helping students get into top colleges across the country, like Harvard, Cornell, and MIT. For more in-depth feedback, Expert Essay Review provides feedback from professionals. Our reviewers can advise on tone, form, efficacy, and more.
Your financial support helps us consult with admissions departments on how to ensure our model is up to date with developments of personal and scholarship essays.
Financial Aid Advising
The cost of college is the most important factor for a student when deciding about college, yet far too many students leave financial aid unclaimed because the process seems confusing and complicated. School counselors have too many students in their caseload. For the 2024-25 FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), just 54.4% of the nation's high school seniors completed the form. Completing the FAFSA is the most important step in accessing an average of over $15,000 in federal, state, institutional and scholarship aid.
That's why we offer this free service to underserved high school students nationwide. Anyone can log into our website and access a range of services. We offer a FAFSA chatbot, trained exclusively on the most current Federal Student Aid documentation. The chatbot can communicate in multiple languages.
Second, we offer virtual group FAFSA help sessions in the evenings, where students and parents can get personalized help from financial aid professionals on how to complete their FAFSA.
Third, we offer 1:1 virtual help sessions during the weekday, evening and weekends.
When you support this project, you are empowering critical help that is not otherwise available for first generation and low-income students. Here's what your support pays for:
1. Ongoing outreach to students and schools about our free services
2. Recruiting and training volunteers
3. Scheduling, meeting and notetaking software
4. Updating and maintaining our FAFSA Chatbot
5. Incentives for volunteers and students to participate.
Instant FAFSA Help
Applying for financial aid can be complicated, and it's even harder when you don't know where to get answers. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the most important step for students in getting money for college.
Fair Opp helps students navigate the financial aid process and our team engineered this chatbot to answer the questions that we get asked over and over again:
How do you know whether a parent needs to provide their information on a student's FAFSA application? What you're supposed to do with an SAR? How about what happens after you file a FAFSA? How to explain the process to a Spanish-speaking parent? ¿Puedes explicar el proceso de FAFSA en español? How to explain the FAFSA process in Chinese, Arabic, Punjabi or dozens of other languages?
These are some of the barriers that students face when trying to complete the FAFSA. School counselors have very limited time to help students with their FAFSAs and college planning. The average school has a 424:1 student-to-counselor ratio. With our FAFSA chatbot, students and counselor can find the answer to a financial aid question instantly, saving precious time and avoiding delays that may mean a student never completes the form.
You can test out the chatbot now on our website: https://www.fairopportunityproject.org/fafsa-chat
Your financial support of this project will help us pay for the following:
1. Monthly hosting of the AI tool
2. Periodic updates to the knowledge base from Federal Student Aid
3. Outreach to schools and students about the tool
4. Upgrades to the chatbot with additional financial aid information as requested by students and schools. (e.g., contact information for college financial aid offices.)
The Guide: How to Attend and Afford College
The college application and financial aid process often feels like an insurmountable maze. Public school counselors tackle these challenges as best they can, but there are on average 424 students for every public school counselor. Specific populations are impacted the most, such as students from low-income, first-generation, or rural backgrounds.
Here is where Fair Opp’s award-winning guide to college applications and financial aid steps in. We continuously update The Guide with the most recent and relevant information for students and counselors to reference at any point. The Guide has been translated into 7 languages and distributed to every public high school in the U.S.
What does your donation do? It helps us keep The Guide updated and available to thousands of high schools across the country for absolutely no cost.
Virtual College & Career Advising
Fair Opp dedicates its resources to serving high school students through the post-high school transition. Whether the student seeks college or career pursuit, Fair Opp offers instant and expert services to ease the anxiety commonly found during this time.
In 2024, Fair Opp:
Served more than 5,000 students
Reviewed over 1,500 essays
Helped students apply to over 400 colleges
Guided students across all 50 states in the U.S.
Fair Opp cannot make this impact alone. Your financial support helps us:
1. Recruit advisers from a wide range of colleges and careers
2. Provide training for those volunteers
3. Conduct background checks and vetting
4. Support our scheduling, note-taking and virtual meeting software
5. Follow up with students and advisers on the experience and next steps
6. Find and communicate with high-need schools about our free services
Volunteering + Events
Review College Application Essays
Going beyond test scores and GPAs, the college application essay is a golden opportunity for students to show a college who they are. School counselors already have heavy work loads. They often do not have the time to guide students through personal or scholarship essays. Fair Opportunity Project steps in through their 1:1 essay review sessions, providing individualized feedback for students.
Fair Opportunity Project’s essay review volunteers are trained on what makes an essay both professional and unique. Our volunteer support network ensures our essay reviewers are confident and prepared for the task at hand. This volunteer opportunity is flexible to your schedule and completely remote.
Advise High School Students About College
High-income students are 19% more likely to enroll in college than middle- or low-income students. Fair Opportunity Project’s goal for high school students to have sufficient college advising, no matter their zip code or background. Our volunteers make this goal possible. Spanning a variety of backgrounds, our volunteers provide unique expertise on the college application and admissions process. This process is bewildering to students. Your lived and learned experience can keep these students grounded and motivated.
Once you sign up, our training model will hone your skills and expertise. This volunteer opportunity is flexible and responsive to your interests and availability.
The value of this volunteer opportunity is really incredible for these students. In the words of one advisee from Texas:
"Fair Opportunity Project is such an underrated program for high-school students where you can get help with college applications and understand the whole process. My advisor spent multiple sessions working with me on my application, polishing it before I submit it to all my schools."
Financial Aid/FAFSA Advisor for High School Students
Financial aid is what makes students’ futures possible, but this crucial step comes without a whole host of confusions for students. For the 2024-25 FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), just 54.4% of the nation's high school seniors completed the form. Fair Opportunity Project provides free financial aid guidance to underserved students in hopes of increasing this percentage. Along with advising students on filing the FAFSA, our financial aid advisors help students approach other forms of aid such as scholarships, loans, and grants. Last year, our students earned over $5,000,000 in scholarships. With a greater grasp on affording education, these students can focus on having successful college and career experiences.
Are you financially savvy? Do you have a passion for education equality? Want to make a difference? Join our team of financial aid advisors, professionally trained and supported through our team. See your efforts come to fruition.
Guide High School Students Through Career Exploration
Graduating from high school, students explore a variety of new paths, whether that be entering a higher-education program or entering the world of work. For those seeking to start their career journey, Fair Opportunity Project offers virtual career advising sessions. Advisors use their real-world expertise as well as training materials from Fair Opp to help students understand their desired field. Advisors can guide students through topics such as resumes, writing professional emails, and understanding job offers.
This opportunity is great for people looking to make a lasting impact in the lives of today’s youth. Volunteering with us is completely remote and works around your schedule. All of our volunteers go through specialized training to ensure they are confident in their advising.