The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program, more commonly known as GEAR UP, is a product of federal legislation designed to increase high school completion and college attendance of low-­income youth. It is a federally funded discretionary grant program that is planned, organized and operated at the state and local level. This means that while the objectives of GEAR UP are the same across the country, the program structure, program services and connections to local school districts vary widely. This variation results in considerable differences in program models and program outcomes across state and local program sites. The College Crusade of Rhode Island provides GEAR UP program services to about 4,000 low-­income, middle school and high school students each year. They College Crusade offers programs of academic enrichment as well as personal and social development, complemented by substantial college scholarship support to participants. Since millions of dollars are spent annually around the nation supporting GEAR UP programs, its seems fair to ask if a state or local GEAR UP program can improve high school completion and college enrollment of low­-income students, and indeed considerable efforts are underway to provide some answers to this question. State and local GEAR UP programs are all under pressure to provide some solid--evidence-­based--answers. This article presents the findings of a first of its kind study of the impacts of a state GEAR UP program on student participant outcomes. The study uses statistically rigorous methodology (Propensity Score Matching) to measure program impacts on its core outcomes of student persistence in middle and high school, high school graduation, and college enrollment.