Learners from underserved backgrounds tend to show lower levels of college readiness (ACT, 2016a; ACT, 2018). In part to address these disparities, the authors investigated growth in social and emotional (SE) skills in a cohort of largely Hispanic, high-poverty students who participated in GEAR UP. GEAR UP is a discretionary federal grant program designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in college. GEAR UP offered services designed to increase the college readiness of students over the six years of this study. These services, aimed at students, parents, and teachers, included activities such as academic planning and financial aid counseling, college fairs and field trips, leadership development, and college readiness training. Students also received training on skills such as studying, time management, planning and organization, and managing stress. Services were specifically aligned to the ACT SE skills through crosswalks. This study suggests that GEAR UP has a positive effect on students' SE skills and thus on their overall college readiness. It also shows that lower-performing students displayed the greatest improvement in SE skills by the end of the study, closing the gap with higher-performing students. However, the authors did find that interventions take time to produce change. This is important to note in the current educational reform climate in which interventions are often attempted and abandoned within an academic year or less.