Dive Brief:
- On the recent National College Application Day, 32 Indiana colleges waived the usual application fees, while Indianapolis public high schools leveraged the ensuing excitement in future centers to help guide students through the college application process, explained Fox 59.
- The centers provide a place for students to talk to guidance counselors, set up ACT and SAT test appointments and submit college applications, all while availing themselves of laptops and high-speed internet, which they may not have at home.
- Mentors also offer help with crafting college essays. Overall, these sorts of centers "level the playing field," said one future center coordinator.
Dive Insight:
Concerns over the digital divide often focus on the increasing inability of students' without reliable internet access at home to complete school work. But it also affects those students' college search and applications, a process that spans a number of months and requires a good deal of timely online form submission.
Centers such as those in Indiana are an idea that many high schools could adapt, even if corners of guidance offices or school libraries are set up for this purpose. Where staff is stretched too thin to carve out time during the school day to oversee such centers, administrators can facilitate partnerships with local nonprofits to work with students on site. In Oakland, California, for example, Oakland Promise is one such partner with high schools, setting up college and career hubs on middle school and high school campuses.
Meanwhile, students in Rhode Island recently began earning money to take the steps a future center would facilitate, such as sending in college applications and taking the SAT.