The Academic Advancement Program (AAP), a multiracial program, represents the best of what United States society aspires to: access, equity, opportunity, and excellence. AAP has a three key goals:

  • To create and administer innovative academic programs for first generation, low-income and students who have been historically underrepresented in higher education;
  • To provide academic support for a diverse population of undergraduate students in their pursuit of academic excellence;
  • To promote UCLA access and academic success for high school and community college students across the State’s increasingly diverse populations.

AAP programs and services are linked together by an underlying belief that all AAP students have earned their academic right to be at UCLA and have demonstrated the academic potential to excel at, and graduate from, UCLA. Our mission is carried out in a coordinated and integrated manner by a professional and para-professional student staff who share in a common vision and sense of purpose. Our programs and services are proactive rather than reactive, comprehensive rather than fragmented, and oriented toward furthering the long-term academic and personal growth of AAP students – rather than merely solving or mitigating immediate problems. Moreover, AAP encourages and promotes academic achievement and excellence by providing students with:

  • peer learning (tutoring)
  • academic programs
  • academic, personal, and career counseling
  • graduate and professional school mentoring
  • scholarships
  • research opportunities and stipends
  • opportunities to participate in innovative science programs
  • and a computer lab

AAP Mission Statement

Built on principles of social justice, AAP has a threefold mission:

  1. to advocate and facilitate the access, academic success, and graduation of students who have been historically underrepresented in higher education;
  2. inform and prepare students for graduate and professional schools; and
  3. to develop the academic, scientific, political, economic, and community leadership necessary to transform society.

The successful integration of our three-fold mission strengthens our commitment to access, equity and excellence.

To achieve this mission, AAP encourages students to explore their talents and abilities, to believe in themselves, to set the highest standards for themselves, to aspire to academic and personal excellence, to utilize the full range of campus resources, and to develop a sense of community and social responsibility.