This looks like an excellent pilot project. I hope they do expand it (carefully, with fidelity). It's the same rationale behind our early college dual enrollment program: give first-gen college students proof positive that they are college quality, while also coaching them through the EF skills they will need to make it through college graduation.

One note: most of the elite universities do have branch campuses--in their search for "quality applicants"--but they are generally international, either in highly competitive communities outside of North America, or in significantly disadvantaged development districts. The twist would be for them to start looking at domestic development districts from similar angles.

...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...