Follow the Data Podcast Episode 5: How a virtual advisor helped a student get into a top college

Thousands of high-achieving, low- and moderate-income high school students graduate each year with strong academic credentials but they lack critical guidance to apply to, enroll in and graduate from top-performing colleges and universities. To improve these odds, Bloomberg Philanthropies developed the CollegePoint initiative which matches select students with virtual advisors.

In our newest episode of Follow the Data, we meet CollegePoint e-advisor Kiki Murrain and her advisee Sabyne Pierre.  Matched together through our CollegePoint initiative, Kiki has been advising Sabyne through the college application process using text messages, emails, social networks, and even Skype. To tell us more about how virtual advising works, and their CollegePoint experience, the pair sat down with Jenny Kane from our Education team to share their stories of getting Sabyne to the college of her dreams and to impart some advice for all high school students.

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We hope you enjoy this episode. Follow us on Twitter @BloombergDotOrg for information about our next episode. Until then, keep following the data!