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

High school seniors in a school district in Texas will receive $1 million in scholarships after their district was named the winner of this year’s Broad Prize for Urban Education.  The award is offered annually by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and is designed to reward notable gains in student achievement and in narrowing the achievement gap for poor and minority students.  Aldine Independent School District, which serves the Houston area, won the top prize this year, after having previously been a runner up for the prize three times.

The Broad Foundation names five finalists each year and from them, chooses a winner for the $1 million Broad Prize.  This year, the other finalists were Broward County, Florida (a two-time finalist); Long Beach, California (a former winner and three-time finalist); Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas; and Gwinnet County Public Schools in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Aldine won the prize based on a number of factors.  The Broad Foundation cited the district’s gains in breaking “the predictive power of poverty,” as the district’s predominately low-income students outperformed peers of similar backgrounds on state standardized tests.  The achievement gap for both low-income and minority students has been closing at Aldine, with a 14-point reduction in the achievement gap for African-American middle schoolers in math over the last four years.  Other successes included Aldine’s recruitment of highly qualified teachers, engagement with students, and districtwide standardization of education practices and curriculum (many poor families move around within the district, so making what is taught in each grade more uniform across the district helps them keep from falling behind).

The scholarship awards will help further the success of graduates from Aldine, with $20,000 over four years going to students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities and up to $5,000 over two years going to students who enroll in community colleges.  Students at other finalist schools will also receive scholarship money:  each of the prize’s four finalist districts will receive $250,000 to award to their high school students.

Posted: under High School, High School News, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, High School, High School News, high school student scholarships, high school students, Scholarships, state news, Texas scholarships

Comments (0) Sep 18 2009

As unemployment rates remain high and budgets stay tight, more people are looking to wait out the struggling economy by going back to college. Competition then has become more fierce not only on the admissions level, but for funding to pay for those educations. While many schools are doing whatever they can to continue offering scholarships and grants, the economy has affected some schools’ available funding. Good news is, scholarships do exist, and there are things you can do to have a better chance of landing one.

• Apply early, and apply often. Scholarships wait for no one, and a later deadline doesn’t mean you should wait until the very last moment to apply. Generous scholarships like the Coca-Cola Scholars Program have deadlines in October, for example. It’s not a bad move to look ahead and start applying for awards beyond this year, either, to get an idea of funding you’ll need in the future. To see scholarships that have deadlines this fall, conduct a a free scholarship search and see the dozens you could be eligible for.
• Don’t rule out local scholarships. While funding packages from your intended college are often more generous than outside awards, it won’t hurt to supplement any funding you’re awarded or have a backup plan in case what your school offers covers less of your fees than you thought. Local scholarships from your dad’s employer or your local bowling league are also less competitive than college-based awards or the more well-known contests, and often look at things beyond your GPA and test scores to factor in things like community service, your experience with that organization and financial need. New scholarships are being created all the time, so check on your search throughout the school year for the most up-to-date results.
• Stand out on the application. It’s not too late to make up for that less-than-stellar grade in your high school Algebra class, especially if you’re looking ahead to scholarship opportunities beyond your freshman year in college. GPAs matter from your entire high school career, so don’t slack off when the senioritis hits. Don’t be afraid of AP classes unless it’s a subject you know you’d get a low grade in, and get involved in your school and your community as it’s also not always about academics. Work on that resume by applying for internships that fit your intended major, and put in more hours of practice if you’re going for a sports or music scholarship. It’s never too late to make yourself a more desirable scholarship candidate.
• Appeal your award. If you’ve done everything you can - filled out your FAFSA early, put together impressive scholarship applications - and you feel the financial aid you’ve been offered from your school is unfair or if your circumstances have changed dramatically since applying for government aid, you still have options. Schools are more likely to reconsider packages in the current climate, and you could be eligible for more grant and scholarship funding, the best kind that you don’t need to pay back.

For more information on upcoming scholarships and other helpful financial aid tips, visit our College Resources. Tomorrow, we’ll explore your options on keeping college costs low and looking at a school’s program versus its reputation.

Posted: under College Costs, College and the Economy, FAFSA, Financial Aid, Scholarships, Tips.
Tags: College and the Economy, college scholarships, economy, high school students, local scholarships, undergraduate scholarships

Comments (0) Sep 14 2009

Briana G. wants to create a “healthy Twinkie.” While completing an Associate’s degree in Baking and Pastry Arts, she became concerned about America’s obesity epidemic and realized she wanted to learn to craft more forgiving sweets. To help her complete a degree in Food Science and Dietetics at Colorado State University, Scholarships.com has named Briana the 2009 recipient of the annual $1,000 College Culinary Arts Scholarship.

Scholarships.com has been awarding Area of Study College Scholarships since summer 2008 to help students like Briana meet their college and career goals. The competition grants a $1,000 scholarship each month to a high school senior or undergraduate student planning to pursue a career in one of thirteen areas of study, including Culinary Arts.

“These students have such creative ideas and reasons for choosing a particular major and, through this program, we are able to help them share these ideas and aspirations,” said Kevin Ladd, Vice President for Scholarships.com. “The Area of Study College Scholarships help students pay for college and also challenge them to really think about why they want to study a given subject or go into a particular field.”

Applicants are asked to compose essays describing what influenced their career choices. In her submission, Briana described reconciling her desire to make “delicious, eye-catching desserts” with her growing awareness of how poor diets contribute to obesity. Her goal now it to make healthy version of the “sweet treats that Americans love.”

The Scholarships.com Area of Study Scholarships are open to all U.S. citizens who will be attending college in the fall of 2009, regardless of age, test scores or grade point average. To apply for the Scholarships.com Area of Study College Scholarships, students can visit www.scholarships.com, conduct a free college scholarship search and complete an online scholarship application.

A complete list of Area of Study scholarship winners, as well as their winning essays is available on our Student Winners page.

Posted: under Financial Aid, Food/Cooking, Scholarships.
Tags: Area of Study Scholarships, cooking, culinary arts scholarship, food, Food/Cooking, high school student scholarships, high school students, Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, undergraduate students

Comments (0) Sep 09 2009

The Obama health plan isn’t the only hotly debated controversy in which the of the social good is currently being invoked.  College rankings also fall into this category with the release of Washington Monthly’s annual rankings this month, which differ sharply from the better-known U.S. News and World Report rankings, and focus primarily on universities’ contributions to the “social good.”

Washington Monthly publishes two sets of rankings, one for national universities and one for liberal arts colleges, each year.  This year, the top three spots in the magazine’s national university rankings all went to schools in the University of California system: UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and UC Los Angeles, respectively.  The top three liberal arts colleges were Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Williams College.  Amherst and Williams both appeared in U.S. News’ top three, as well, but rankings differed sharply for many of Washington Monthly’s other top schools, which included many state colleges, as opposed to the elite private colleges that dominate U.S. News.

A large part of the drastically different rankings comes from Washington Monthly’s chosen methodology, which asks as much what colleges are doing for the country as it asks what they can do for their students.  This is determined by looking at factors that include student involvement in national service, university involvement in research, and the social mobility attending college gives students.

The service index is achieved by looking at the number of current students involved in ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps, as well as graduate participation in the Peace Corps.  Research is determined by the university’s production of PhD graduates, the number of degree recipients going on to achieve PhDs at other institutions, and other components such as research spending and faculty awards.  The matrix is slightly different for liberal arts college, as many don’t award PhDs and some don’t provide data for all of the research categories.  Social mobility is based on each school’s ability to enroll and graduate needy students, determined by a calculation involving the percentage of students who receive federal Pell Grants and the school’s undergraduate graduation rate.

Washington Monthly provides a more thorough description of their rankings system, as well as the rationale behind their decision to rank colleges, on their College Guide website.  Other magazines participating in the college rankings game include Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine.

Posted: under Back to School, College News, High School, High School News, Tips.
Tags: choosing a college, college news, college rankings, College Search, college tips, community service, Financial Aid, Graduate School, high school students, Tips

Comments (0) Sep 03 2009

The University of Texas has announced plans to withdraw as a sponsor of National Merit, a popular national scholarship program that students qualify for based on standardized test scores.  In an effort to focus on providing need-based financial aid, the university will no longer offer scholarships specifically for National Merit Scholars.  The University of Texas, which was second only to Harvard University in the number of National Merit Finalists it enrolled, offered qualifying students awards worth up to $13,000 over the course of four years.

Texas is not the first major university system to choose to cease participating in National Merit, a program that offers $2,500 scholarships to high school juniors who do well on the PSAT, with the potential for honorees to receive much larger scholarship awards from partner companies and universities.  Other institutions, including the University of California system, have previously chosen to withdraw sponsorship of National Merit, while many other schools have chosen not to offer awards specifically for National Merit winners.

National Merit has previously drawn criticism for its strong emphasis on high PSAT scores (other application materials are considered in selecting finalists, but semifinalists are chosen solely based on test scores).  Students from wealthier families who have access to the best high schools and a variety of test preparation resources typically do best on standardized tests, such as the PSAT, which results in scholarship awards like National Merit skewing towards affluent students who need less assistance paying for college.

A University of Texas official cited similar reasoning in the university’s decision to stop awarding National Merit Scholarships, stating that only one fourth of students receiving the scholarships typically bothered to apply for federal student financial aid, indicating the vast majority had access to other means of covering their college costs.  The students who are most likely to be hurt by the loss of this scholarship opportunity will likely be helped by the increase in need-based financial aid that the university is promising.

University officials stressed that applicants who would have been eligible for this award will still be able to compete for other academic scholarships, and the undergraduate students currently receiving this award will continue to do so for their full four years of eligibility.  Still, this announcement is likely to upset some students and to fuel the fires of the ongoing debate over merit-based versus need-based financial aid in colleges and universities.

Posted: under College Costs, College News, Financial Aid, High School, Scholarships.
Tags: academic scholarships, college news, college scholarships, Financial Aid, high school students, merit-based, need-based, PSAT, state colleges

Comments (0) Sep 02 2009

Posted: under Back to School, College Culture, College News, High School, High School News.
Tags: acceptance rates, applications, college admissions, High School, high school students, SAT

Comments (0) Aug 28 2009

Students who have faced and overcome obstacles and remain committed to the goal of receiving a four-year degree can receive a substantial amount of help towards their goal with this week’s Scholarship of the Week.  The Horatio Alger National Scholarship Program will award 104 scholarships in the amount of $20,000 to high school seniors from low-income backgrounds who are planning to pursue bachelor’s degrees.  Ideal candidates will demonstrate a commitment to use their college degrees in service to others.

Prize:

$20,000 national scholarships, plus additional state and local scholarships.

Eligibility:

Posted: under High School, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, high school student scholarships, high school students, need-based, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships

Comments (0) Aug 17 2009

Following the lead of U.S. News, several other publications have entered the college rankings game in recent years.  Yesterday, Forbes Magazine revealed its second annual list of America’s best colleges.  Ranking first was the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY, followed by Princeton University.  While Princeton typically does well in college rankings, the appearance of West Point in first place is something of a surprise in the college rankings world.  Forbes touts its rankings as being focused on a college’s ability to meet students’ needs, a factor that includes post-graduate student loan debt (20% of the ranking), and the U.S. Military Academy is tuition-free.

As is the case with other college rankings, these should be taken with a grain of salt.  The Forbes Magazine rankings also draw heavily on data from Ratemyprofessors.com (making up 25% of each school’s score), a website whose primary metrics for rating professors include “hotness” and “easiness.”  Similarly, a portion of the Forbes ranking is influenced by the number of graduates appearing in publications like Who’s Who in America (12.5%), whose significance and methodology have been questioned repeatedly, at least once within the pages of Forbes Magazine itself.

Much of the information included in the Forbes rankings is useful, though, such as graduates’ average salaries, the likelihood of graduating in four years, and graduates’ average student loan debt load.  However, when checking out these or other rankings, be aware that the criteria used by publications or the sources they use to determine their rankings may be irrelevant to you and your needs.  Think carefully about which factors are important to you when choosing a college and base your choices on those.  There are many free tools to help you in your college search, so it’s a wise idea to look beyond top colleges lists when making your decision of where to apply.

Posted: under College Costs, College News.
Tags: choosing a college, college news, College Search, college tips, Financial Aid, high school students, Tips

Comments (0) Aug 07 2009

College rankings, such as those published this week by Princeton Review, always generate media buzz and factor heavily into students’ decisions (”Do I really want to go to one of the top 20 party schools?”).  However, rankings are not everything, nor is cost (even in a recession), and in your college search, you may find that many colleges offer things that can’t be easily quantified.

Rising high school seniors returning from their first round of campus visits and newly admitted undergraduate students who have gone through orientation and registration have likely experienced some of this.  In addition to offering good financial aid, academic programs, extracurricular activities, and dorm food, the best colleges will also entice students to imagine themselves living on campus and being a part of the culture there.  While prestige is certainly nice, your college experience will be enriched by feeling as though you are engaged with those around you and like you really belong to the campus community.

How colleges try to create this impression varies greatly.  I’ve seen tongue-in-cheek Facebook groups for several colleges, including my alma mater, declaring students’ decisions to enroll were based on receiving a free t-shirt, but gestures like this can make a difference.  The small liberal arts college my sister ultimately chose to attend offered a package of cookies from the local cookie factory to students who took a campus tour, which we happily munched on while driving home from an impressive campus visit.  The most interesting college freebie I’ve heard of comes from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, which sends each incoming freshman a box of Walla Walla onions.  That definitely makes a unique impression!

This has us wondering: have you received anything cool from a college you’ve visited or chosen to attend?  What unconventional things have caught your attention during the process of choosing a college?

Posted: under Back to School, College Culture, High School.
Tags: Back to School, choosing a college, college admissions, College Culture, College Search, college tips, High School, high school students

Comments (1) Jul 29 2009