Minds Matter

Boston - Students FAQ

What are the requirements for a student to be accepted into the Minds Matter program?
Minds Matter is looking for students who:

Come from households with an annual family income below $30,000.
Reside in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts.
New students must be enrolled in grades 10 or 11
Students must maintain a strong overall grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

What is the cost of the Minds Matter program?
Minds Matter helps students apply for financial aid awards and raises funds to supplement financial aid. Thus, the program is of no cost to the student, his/her family, or school.

When is the application deadline?
The deadline for the 2009-2010 academic school year has passed. Applications will be available online beginning in the Spring of 2010 for the 2010-2011 school year. Please mail all application items together.

How and when are students notified as to whether they were accepted into the program?
Students invited to interview will be contacted by telephone shortly after they submit their applications. The time and location of the interviews have yet to be determined. Students will be notified of Minds Matter's admissions decision by October.

How often does the Minds Matter program meet?
Minds Matter sessions are held on Saturdays from 12:00AM - 2:00PM during the school year. Sessions are not held on holidays or during school vacations. We end right before Memorial Day.

Where do weekly sessions take place?
Minds Matter meets at the Citizen School in the Boston Children's Museum. Organized field trips take place throughout the year and focus on educational and team building activities such as trips to the Boston Museum of Science or college tours). These outings take place of or happen in addition to normal Saturday sessions.

What kinds of summer programs do Minds Matter students apply to?
Minds Matter students attend summer programs and get into colleges around the country. Our Prep Program students have been accepted into many top summer programs such as Choate Rosemary Hall, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Brown and Philips Exeter Academy. And our Senior Program students have been accepted to colleges such as MIT, Boston University, Hamilton College, Howard University, Northeastern University, Smith College, and Tufts University to name a few.

What process is used to match Minds Matter students with their mentors?
Minds Matter takes mentor/mentee matching very seriously. Volunteers and students alike are asked a series of questions during the application process as well as the interview to assess interests (hobbies, personal background, career, etc), areas of strength, and areas of improvement so that the Directors of Mentor and Student recruiting may do their best to ensure a good match and overall experience for both the mentors and the mentee.

Do students stay with the same mentors throughout their entire Minds Matter experience?
Ideally, a mentee will have the same mentors from the day he/she starts the program until the day that he/she graduates from high school. Minds Matter does its best to assess each volunteer's availability and match him/her accordingly. We do, however, understand that "life happens" and Minds Matter sometimes does experience turnover due to unforeseen circumstances such as job/city changes and graduate school. Luckily, Minds Matter is growing on a national level and we do often see volunteers join a different Chapter should they move to another city in which we operate. In fact, most of Minds Matter's Chapters were started in other cities by volunteers who had to leave New York because of work and school commitments!

What criteria are taken into consideration when matching a student to a summer program?
In early spring, Minds Matter mentors begin to work with the summer programs to determine financial aid and scholarship options for each student. Based on each student's attendance, commitment and involvement in the Program, and the scholarship money offered to each student, we work to place each student in the best summer program matched to their needs.

Who can I contact if I have other questions about being a student in the Minds Matter program?
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact Sid Palani or Tucker Hodgkins at boston@mindsmatter.org.

Minds Matter, Inc.
1120 Avenue of Americas
4th Floor
New York, NY 10036
info@mindsmatter.org
212.626.6584