D’naysha Griggs is a senior at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics high school. When she’s not babysitting her eight nieces and nephews, she’s working 20 hours a week as a sales associate at Modell’s Sporting Goods in Brooklyn. She’s also taking Advanced Placement classes and applying to 14 colleges. 

Griggs’ work history and family commitments might seem like key selling points for colleges that say they value grit, time management skills, and maturity. But many college applications don’t give much space to that kind of experience. Admissions officers at top schools tend to value community service—the sort of activities that low-income students who are determined to help their families and find ways to save for college may not have time for.

Every spring, colleges try new approaches to get the students they have admitted to actually enroll. A few colleges enroll most of the students they admit, but most colleges struggle a bit and enroll only a minority of those students.

Loyola University New Orleans is this year trying a new approach: letting some students who have been admitted take a three-credit course, free. The approach represents a conviction that nothing is better to sell Loyola than the experience of studying with a professor there.