by Derrius Quarles

Greetings, my name is Derrius Lamar Quarles and I am currently a freshman majoring in psychology with a biology and public health minor at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. I am originally from Chicago, Illinois and went to high school not too far from Barack Obama’s home. Recently I have been featured on CNN, BET, and in the Chicago Tribune discussing various topics ranging from my journey as a foster child in Chicago to my matriculation at Morehouse College. However, the most exciting and acclaimed topic has been my success in applying for and winning scholarship money—$1,145,000 in total.

This accomplishment has won me the titles “Million Dollar Man” and “Million Dollar Scholar,” titles that I accept gratefully and with a sense of responsibility to help others achieve their goals of attending and paying for college. I can vividly remember writing the goal “Win a million dollars in scholarship money” on a sheet of notebook paper and having many people help me manifest that goal. I hope not only to help high school students learn how to apply for scholarships and win them, but to inspire middle school students to attend college, motivate elementary school students to become scholars, and encourage preschool students to become whatever they want to be. We are all born with the ability to capture our dreams, but few ever learn how to synthesize their dreams into goals, which, unlike dreams, are achievable. It’s like the concept of potential and kinetic energy. We all have potential energy (dreams), but potential energy on its own cannot do any work. We have to learn how to apply force (turn dreams into reality) so that our own potential energy can be turned into kinetic energy that can help us accomplish our goals.

A few years ago I dreamed of going to college, knowing nothing of what I needed to do in order to gain acceptance and how much college would cost. I avidly believe that if I did not make the decision to turn that dream into a goal by learning about the requirements, tailoring my class schedule to make it more rigorous, doing well in my classes and, most of all, asking for help from others, I would not be attending Morehouse College. For many, the decision to turn a dream into a goal is the hardest step, but it does not have to be, and neither does making the decision to turn your dream of paying for college into a goal. Start out by researching which colleges you would like to attend and how much they will cost. Once you have done this, research whether the institutions offer scholarships for such things as academics, community service, sports, leadership, coming from a disadvantaged background, or residing in a certain state. All institutions will offer some form of aid for their applicants, so make sure you are aware of any scholarships or grants you are eligible for from the college you plan on attending. The next step is completing your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), which becomes available Jan. 1 of every year. After that, you should start locating other resources for searching and applying for financial aid, including your high school and free online scholarship databases such as Scholarships.com. Once you start doing these things, you will actually be turning your dream into a goal and you will soon realize that the first step does not have to be the hardest.

About the Author:

Derrius L. Quarles is a 19-year-old freshman at Morehouse College. He hopes to go to medical school after he graduates with a degree in psychology and biology and a minor in public health, and to one day work on the public health policies of his hometown, Chicago, and beyond. To help him achieve those academic and career ambitions, Derrius has won more than $1.1 million in scholarships, including a full scholarship to attend Morehouse, since graduating from Chicago’s Kenwood Academy High School with a 4.2 GPA. Derrius was awarded a Gates Millennium scholarship and won a number of other highly competitive awards, many of which he found while searching for scholarships at Scholarships.com. He is the first in his family to attend college, and spent his childhood in the foster care system before becoming the “Million Dollar Scholar.” This is the first in a series of posts Derrius will write for Scholarships.com on how he was able to fund his education, along with advice about the scholarship application process.

Posted: under College Applications, College Costs, College and the Economy, Federal Aid, Financial Aid, Scholarship Applications, Scholarships, Tips, Uncategorized.

Comments (1) Nov 17 2009

While so far it appears that the recession has not had a negative impact on students’ desire to go to college, it may be affecting their ability to get there, or at least to get into their school of choice.

State colleges have endured some significant budget cuts in the last year, while also coping with an increased demand for student financial aid and drops in endowments and donations. These circumstances have left schools scrambling to find additional sources of funding to meet everyday expenses and deal with increased demand. To mitigate tuition increases, many state colleges, especially public flagship universities, have begun to admit more out-of-state and international students. These students pay higher tuition, often without significant help from university scholarships, meaning more revenue for the university and lower costs for the in-state students attending.

This is a win-win situation for colleges and out-of-state students, who are more likely than ever to get into their dream school thanks to these new policies. One example is the College of William and Mary, where the out-of-state admission rate has risen from 22 percent of applicants in 2007 to 30 percent in 2009. While out-of-state admission is still significantly more competitive than in-state, students who are able to pay non-resident tuition at public flagship universities may see more success in 2010 than previous years.

However, with more seats being filled by out-of-state students, in-state students are at a disadvantage. At the same time as admissions ratios are being adjusted, more students are applying to in-state schools to take advantage of relatively reasonable tuition costs, especially where a low price corresponds with a top-rate education.

Where competition is fierce and seats and scholarships are limited, students who had been planning on attending their state’s public flagship may want to cast a wider net in their college search. Consider a private college-some in California are offering substantial scholarships to students who would otherwise have attended a state college-or think about putting in a year or two at community college first. You may also find a less expensive, but still highly respected, option in a branch campus of a flagship, or in another state college nearby.  It may even be possible to transfer to your dream college later, as more and more university systems and community colleges develop agreements for how credits will transfer between schools.

Posted: under College Applications, College Search, College and the Economy.
Tags: college admissions, College and the Economy, College Applications, College Costs, College Search, state colleges

Comments (0) Nov 16 2009

College admission practices are often points of contention, especially when tricky issues like race, gender, and socioeconomic class are concerned. Colleges worry about trying to promote diversity and give students a fair chance in their admission practices and other parties worry about practices potentially shortchanging students. Based on some of these concerns, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has decided to investigate allegations of gender bias in admission practices at selective colleges. The concern: in order to preserve male-to-female ratios on campus, colleges are being less selective in admitting male students than in admitting female students.

In recent decades, women have begun to thrive in higher education, making up a significantly larger share of undergraduate students, bachelor’s degree recipients, and master’s degree students than men. Postsecondary Education Opportunity data shows that currently there are 77 men in college for every 100 women, and 73 male bachelor’s degree recipients for every 100 female graduates. While gender gaps still persist within specific fields, including traditionally male-dominated disciplines like engineering and computer science, overall women are coming to college in droves and doing well once they arrive.

This trend shows no sign of reversing and has some worried that men will become increasingly underrepresented in higher education, while simultaneously work opportunities contract in traditionally male-dominated fields that don’t require degrees. Schools and other organizations are beginning to address these concerns. For example, a conference panel last month addressed some of the moves being undertaken to encourage more young men to attend college and persist to a degree.

The Commission on Civil Rights inquiry is intended to see if practices are going beyond encouraging young men to enroll and have actually moved into the territory of discriminating against women in admission by admitting a smaller percentage of female applicants and being more selective in admitting women than men. This practice, while possibly unethical at private colleges, would be illegal at state colleges. So far, there hasn’t been sufficient evidence to support this theory, with the majority of admission officers recently saying they don’t consider gender as an important criterion in college admission, leaving some wondering if the inquiry is entirely necessary. Information subpoenaed from colleges in the Washington, DC area should help the commission determine whether reality reflects reporting.

Adding in another level of controversy and drawing a great deal of criticism to the investigation is the strong focus on athletics in the text of the proposal for the investigation. The theory behind it seems to be that Title IX, the federal regulation designed to prevent sex discrimination–most visibly by mandating that men’s and women’s sports are equally represented in public schools–is preventing men from enrolling in college by limiting their opportunities for athletic involvement. Of all the directions the investigation could take, this certainly seems to be an unusual one, and on the surface it seems to present some problematic and likely inaccurate assumptions about gender. The investigation gets underway this month, so a clearer sense of direction may emerge as time goes on.

Posted: under College Applications, College News, Sports.
Tags: college admissions, College Applications, College Culture, college news, Sports

Comments (0) Nov 03 2009

Think getting admitted to the local public university is just a numbers game? Think again. State colleges are increasingly adopting a holistic approach to college admissions, especially at more selective flagship institutions. While applicants with high GPA’s and standardized test scores are still likely to easily gain admittance, students more towards the middle of the pack may want to be aware of this growing trend in enrollment.

The holistic approach means that colleges are aiming to consider the whole applicant, not just his or her grades and test scores, in the admissions process. This information often includes such things as the student’s background, the type of school he or she attended, and the student’s employment and extracurricular activities. Participation in athletics, volunteering and community service, or school clubs could all work to a student’s advantage under a holistic approach.

How schools collect this additional information about applicants varies, but it’s likely to mean a longer and more complicated college application process. For many schools, this has meant adding sections to the application or asking for more, longer, or less formal application essays. For others, it could involve looking more closely at letters of recommendation or beginning to ask for them when they hadn’t previously. College admission officials are also contacting high school counselors to ask questions about applicants that may not have been answered by their college application.

There are some significant benefits to this process. Students who have taken a less traditional path through high school may find their applications considered more favorably. Another upside of colleges looking more closely at the whole student comes with the question of “fit.” Applicants admitted to institutions with a more holistic approach may find themselves happier at the college they ultimately attend, as their interests and their institution’s focus may match more closely than if they’d been admitted based solely on the results of a formula.

If you are applying to a state college or a private college this year, you may want to take a holistic approach to your application, treating each section as if it’s going to be read with a critical eye. Students who have little to show for their high school experience other than decent grades and test scores could potentially find themselves turned down by their top choice schools, but students who can demonstrate the full depth of their value could see big returns.

Posted: under College Applications, College Search.
Tags: college admissions, College Applications, College Search, state colleges

Comments (0) Nov 02 2009

Is it feeling crowded on campus?  It should be, according to new research. A Pew Research Center report released this week shows that in 2008, colleges experienced record enrollments, and early estimates indicate that 2009 enrollments may break the newly minted records for 2008.

Nearly 40 percent of young adults ages 18-24 were enrolled in college in October 2008, up from the previous record of 38.9 percent set in 2005. About 8 million young adults, or 27.8 percent, were enrolled in four-year colleges, representing a slight increase from 2007. However, community colleges have seen an enrollment boom, with their numbers swelling from 3.1 million students, or 10.9 percent of the young adult population, in 2007 to 3.4 million students, or 11.8 percent of young adults, in 2008.

A large part of the enrollment increase is attributed to the growing size of high school graduating classes, with the nation graduating the most students in 2009. This likely accounts for the growth in numbers overall, but something else may be contributing to the increase in community college enrollment. For that, most people are pointing to the recession, which encouraged students who may not have otherwise attended college to enroll, while pushing other college-bound students to explore less expensive options.

Giving further evidence to this theory is the decline in employment among young adults. In 2008, only 50.4 percent of young people aged 16 to 24 were working, compared to 52.7 percent in 2007. However, while more trouble finding work may have encouraged some students to consider attending college, it also has likely created a problem paying for school for many students. A large number of community college students tend to rely on income from work to pay their tuition, as opposed to applying for financial aid or student loans.

Based on enrollment increases for 2008 and anecdotal evidence of continued enrollment booms in 2009, it appears students are still finding ways to fund their educations. Still, students applying to college for 2010 may want to take note of these numbers and begin the college application process and scholarship search early just in case.

Posted: under College Applications, College News, College and the Economy.
Tags: College and the Economy, College Applications, college news, community college, employment

Comments (0) Oct 30 2009

By CampusCompare

Early decision (ED) is an increasingly popular choice for college applications. The reason? Well, actually there are a couple.

First of all, by applying early, students get their admissions notifications early: try around December 15, the same time that regular decision applications are due. This can be a huge relief, knowing where you will be attending college an entire semester before your fellow students.

Another advantage, and a hotly contested one, is that there is evidence that applying early increases your chances of being admitted in the first place, especially among elite colleges. Schools like Amherst College and University of Pennsylvania boast significantly higher acceptance rates for students applying early—almost double that of their regular decision counterparts.

But beware: early decision has some serious pitfalls. For starters, you are locked into admissions should you be accepted. So if you are just starting your college search, you might be jumping the gun by committing to one school. Some schools have, instead, an Early Action deadline which gives you the same early admittance but without being tied down to that school.

Although the acceptance rates for ED can be significantly higher, you should take into account the competitiveness of the application pool. Early Decision applications need stellar junior year grades, as colleges won’t get to see any senior year transcripts. Applicants also tend to be very motivated, as they have already done a lot of college research early. While ED can help you if you are already a competitive applicant, it is not a miracle for mediocre students looking for admissions into a competitive college. Look at your college admissions chances objectively: if you are already competitive applicant, but could use a boost than early decision might help.

Another problem with being locked into ED is that you have no freedom to compare financial aid offers. If finances are even a minor factor in your decision, you should seriously rethink applying Early Decision. By applying to multiple schools, you are able to compare offers from different schools and even use them as bargaining chips against each other.

Basically, unless you are positive that you want to go to a college, and positive that you can afford 100% of the tuition (or the school promises to meet 100% of all demonstrated financial need), early decision college applications might not be for you.

CampusCompare is a free college search engine with tons of interactive tools and blogs that help you find your best-fit college. Check out more at http://www.campuscompare.com.

Posted: under College Applications, College Classes, College Search, Standardized Testing.
Tags: college admissions

Comments (0) Oct 20 2009

Most high school seniors are now entering the last leg of their college search and selecting the colleges to which they plan to apply.  Many are already beginning the college application process, especially if they plan to meet rapidly approaching early decision or early action deadlines at their top choice colleges.  For students looking for a last bit of data with which to game the college admissions system, the National Association for College Admission Counseling has just released their annual State of College Admission report.  Included below are some highlights.

Competition

The report shows that, on the whole, while most colleges and universities aren’t terribly selective, they appear to be becoming slightly more selective on average as they deal with larger numbers of students applying for admission.  Between 2001 and 2007, the average acceptance rate at colleges and universities surveyed declined from 71.3 percent to 66.8 percent.  Colleges largely seem to be expanding enrollment to meet increasing applications, though, with the growth in applications (24 percent) only slightly outpacing the growth in enrollment (20 percent) between 2002 and 2006.

The number of applications colleges received continued to grow in 2008, with approximately three out of four colleges reporting an increase in applications over the previous year.  Students also appear to be applying to more colleges on the whole, with the number of students submitting 7 or more applications growing from 19 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2008.  This growth in applications, especially multiple applications, has resulted in a decrease in yield (the percentage of admitted students who ultimately enroll) by about 4 percentage points.  However, a student’s odds of getting admitted off the wait list remain largely unchanged, hovering around 1 in 3 for 2008.

Selection Process

Also included in the survey were questions about the criteria college admission counselors considered most important when reviewing college applications.  The following criteria were given “considerable importance” (the highest level of importance in the survey) by college counselors:

• Grades in college prep classes (75% of counselors gave it considerable importance)
• Strength of high school curriculum (62%)
• Admission test scores, such as SAT and ACT (54%)
• Class rank (19%)

Criteria that received less importance in consideration were race, first-generation college student status, gender, alumni ties, high school attended, state or county of residence, and ability to pay.  Inside Higher Ed has an article with some nice charts comparing the level of importance given to all of the above criteria.

The Take Away

While there’s a lot of attention given to schools that are more selective, the majority of colleges admit most students who apply.  While more students are kicking the college application process into overdrive and applying to seven or more schools, these students still make up a minority of the college-going crowd.  Additionally, while applications are increasing everywhere, the pace at which early applications are increasing at early-action and early-decision schools seems to be slowing.

Overall, the admission process is only as frantic as you make it.  However, if you are applying to a lot of highly selective schools and the 1-in-3 chance of getting off the wait list if you wind up on it scares you, make sure you’re putting your all into your applications.  Get going on those application essays early and make sure to leave time for feedback and revision.  Also, you’ll want to approach your counselor for any letters of recommendation early–another item noted in the NACAC report was an increased workload for college counselors nationwide.

Posted: under College Applications, College Search.
Tags: college admissions, College Applications, college prep, High School, Standardized Testing

Comments (0) Oct 20 2009

While prospective college freshmen are already beginning to fill out their college applications in preparation for fall application deadlines, transfer students traditionally enjoy a bit more leeway.  However, the sharp state budget cuts and larger enrollments in community and state colleges this year may mean that students planning to transfer from a two-year to a four-year school will want to get their applications together as early as possible this year.

California, a state whose severe budget crisis has made it something of a canary in the mineshaft for most funding issues this year, has recently begun turning transfer students away in droves from its four-year public colleges.  The reason: the state university systems have had to cut back enrollments across the board, and after many decisions had already been made for the academic year now underway, in order to deal with a sharp decrease in available state funding for the current fiscal year.

This means that many conditionally admitted transfer students have been told they need to wait a year or look elsewhere, simply because they didn’t correctly complete all the necessary steps far enough ahead of time to secure seats in state universities for the fall and spring semesters this year.  This leaves students applying last-minute to pricey private colleges, vying for seats in courses that likely won’t even count just to kill time until the next admissions cycle, or even dropping out for a semester or more.  The state’s budget picture shows no signs of improving, meaning transfer students will likely need to contend with the same situation next year, as well.

While other state university systems haven’t had to cap or reduce enrollments or close budget holes to the same extent as California, a decrease in funding coupled with an increase in interest in state and community colleges may still result in wrenches being thrown in many students’ transfer plans.  More students at community colleges will make it harder for some students to get into classes they need to complete to successfully transfer to a four-year college.  More students applying to state colleges means available seats may fill up faster and transfer applications may be delayed.  It can also mean stiffer competition for financial aid, such as transfer student scholarships.  Like in California, it could also mean that students whose transfer applications are not perfect the first time may see their plans derailed, or at least delayed, much more easily than in previous semesters.

Because of these concerns, students who are planning to transfer from a community college to a state college (and also students considering a move between four-year schools) will want to stay in touch with their academic advisors this year and complete all required steps as quickly as possible.  Make sure you are applying for admission and aid well ahead of deadlines, and make sure you’re meeting all requirements to ensure a smooth transfer process.  Staying on top of things this fall can save you headaches, and possibly money, when it’s time to switch schools.

Posted: under College Applications, College News, College and the Economy.
Tags: College and the Economy, College Applications, college news, community college, transfer scholarship

Comments (0) Oct 07 2009

For high school seniors entering the last leg of the college search this fall, questions and frustrations are bound to arise, and the early source of confusion this year appears to stem from standardized testing.  The final SAT and ACT test dates before college applications are due take place this month, meaning more students will soon have their first encounter the College Board’s SAT Score Choice program, which allows students to choose which SAT Scores they want to report to colleges.

On the surface, Score Choice seems like a great innovation and a source of stress relief for students, and it might prove to be such if it were accepted by all colleges.  However, a number of colleges and universities require applicants to report all scores from all standardized tests taken, and this is where students are running into problems.

Specifically, not all schools that require the Common Application, an application shared by many private colleges and intended to simplify the application process, share policies on reporting SAT scores, yet the Common App currently doesn’t allow students to self-report different SAT scores to different schools.  This has left students unsure of how to address what should be one of the easiest sections of their college application (after all, it’s just transcribing numbers).

New York Times writer Jacques Steinberg took up this question for the paper’s blog The Choice, and his answer should help students get over this bump and onto the more difficult parts of the Common Application, like the application essays.  The advice he received when posing this question to the executive director of the Common Application was to simply leave the section blank. The College Board echoed this in a written statement.

Basically, since colleges will receive the official SAT scores (or ACT scores) you report to them when you take the test, they don’t need you to also self-report on the Common Application.  The question is asked only because some colleges take self-reported scores into account to get the ball rolling on the admissions process while waiting for your official scores.  So if you’re completing the Common Application and have multiple test scores that you don’t plan to report to every college on your list, you can safely abstain from self-reporting your SAT scores.

However, the jury’s still out on whether Score Choice will ultimately be worth the hassle it’s begun to present to schools and students this year. Opting to withhold your lowest test scores may not make that big a difference in your admissions prospects, anyway, since taking the SAT multiple times was popular before withholding scores was even an option.  In fact, some schools use your highest scores from all test dates, even dates with lower composites, when considering your application for admission or university scholarships, so withholding the test score where you finally nailed the verbal but completely tanked on the math section could conceivably hurt your prospects slightly in some cases.

Posted: under College Applications, Standardized Testing.
Tags: college admissions, College Applications, SAT, Standardized Testing

Comments (0) Oct 06 2009

The Common Application, which allows students to fill out one form and send it to participating schools, has been around for a while. A competitor, the Universal College Application, came out with a similar form in 2007 that attempted to draw more public schools into the mix. (The Common Application is used by nearly 400 private and public colleges, and includes additional requirements specific to schools that include elements such as essays and recommendation letters with their applications.) This week, another competitor has come into the fold, with claims that this new application will be even more accessible to public institutions and students intimidated by the college application process.

The SuperAPP, which will be offered by the online high school transcript delivery system ConnectEDU thanks to their recent acquisition of college applications company CollegeZapps, aims to take the common application a step further. The new form will not only allow applicants to fill out several forms at once, but will include software to point students to sections of college applications specific to each school. Colleges that use the SuperAPP would also not be required to ask for supplemental materials, as in the case of the Common Application, increasing the pool of potential schools who use the new form. At first, the SuperAPP will be most accessible to high school students already using the company’s online high school transcript network. The announcement from ConnectEDU was made at the National Association for College Admission Counseling Conference (NACAC) in Baltimore Thursday.

The point of all common forms is to simplify the application process. The SuperAPP’s developers claim the original Common Application is not as easy for students to fill out as it suggests, since students are still asked to send in additional paperwork once they’re done with the basic form. In an Inside Higher Ed article today, the Common Application’s defenders say its requirements prevent an open admissions policy, and that the company’s mission isn’t profit but a system that emphasizes judging applicants based on the whole package, which often includes outside recommendations and personal statements. In response to an increase in applications per student, some schools using the Common Application have made their essay requirements more lax, allowing for shorter responses in their supplemental materials.

No matter where you apply, whether you’ll be asked to fill out a common online form or come up with an entirely unique application package for each college you’re applying to, make sure you keep yourself organized so that you don’t miss any deadlines or make an easy mistake. Make a list of everything you’ll need to send to each school, as missing any elements could send you directly to the rejection pile. For more information on college requirements, start off with a college search to start narrowing down your choices and determining what you’ll need to do for each application.

Posted: under College Applications, College News.
Tags: applications, College Applications, high school students

Comments (0) Sep 25 2009