To expand Cornell's Pathway to Success Community College Partnership program, which helps community college students transfer to Cornell and other top four-year institutions, the university is adding the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Suffolk Community College and Nassau Community College, all located in the New York City area, as partners in the program.

"We are thrilled to have these schools join this partnership," said Cornell President David Skorton. "Given Cornell's long history of enrolling transfer students from community colleges, this initiative is yet another example of the university's commitment to honor Ezra Cornell's founding vision of providing access for excellent students from a broad range of backgrounds."

In 2006 Cornell was one of eight institutions nationwide that were awarded grants from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to launch programs to help high-achieving, low-income community college students earn bachelor's degrees at selective four-year institutions. The first partner schools were Monroe Community College in Rochester and Morrisville State College, both in New York state. More than 55 students from Monroe and Morrisville have matriculated at Cornell.

The three new community colleges were selected because "they are downstate, and we wanted to expand our partnership to include schools in the downstate area, and these schools have excellent support services in place for students who want to transfer to four-year institutions," said Doris Davis, Cornell associate provost for admissions and enrollment. "Given our experiences in the partnership thus far, we know that having a strong support service in place is essential for the overall success of the program."

The Cooke Foundation seeks to diversify the socio-economic spectrum of students in major competitive colleges and universities. Cornell has a "need-blind" admissions policy, which does not take a student's economic status into account in the admissions process, and it recently announced a financial aid initiative that eliminates need-based student loans for students from families whose incomes fall below $60,000.