20 new apps to help your college and financial aid search

http://www.oregonlive.com/finance/index.ssf/2013/10/new_apps_to_help_your_college.html#incart_river

The Most And Least Lucrative College Majors, In 2 Graphs

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/22/239698749/the-most-and-least-lucrative-college-majors-in-2-graphs?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

Scholarship Information

Kaiser Permanente Health Care Scholarship
$2,000 will be granted  to a YCHS senior interested in pursuing a health care career who is planning to attend a U.S. accredited college as a full-time degree- or certificate-seeking first-year student  in Fall 2014.

Requirements include a minimum GPA of 2.5; additional consideration is given for first-generation college-bound students; speaking a second language fluently; demonstrating financial need; and being a member of a group under-represented in health professions.

Deadline to apply is Dec. 13, 2013
Apply online at kp.org/communitybenefit/scholarship/nw
A presentation about the scholarship will be given in the ASPIRE office the first week in early November.

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COCA-COLA SCHOLARS FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP FOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS

The Coca-Cola Scholars Program Scholarship is an achievement-based scholarship awarded to graduating high school seniors each year. Students are recognized for their capacity to lead and serve, and their commitment to making a significant impact on their schools and communities. It is our privilege to award over $3 million annually in scholarships to these young leaders.

Current high school seniors with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA may apply using the following link through October 31:

http://www.coca-colascholarsfoundation.org/applicants

For additional information about this scholarship and profiles of past recipients, please visit our website at http://www.coca-colascholarsfoundation.org.
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GE-REAGAN FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM. 

Exceptional student leaders are invited to apply for the 2014 In honor of the legacy and character of President Ronald Reagan, this program annually rewards up to 20 college-bound students who demonstrate exemplary leadership, drive, integrity, and citizenship with $10,000 renewable scholarships (up to $40,000 per recipient).  

Like President Reagan, candidates use the formative experiences of their youth to lead, serve, and pursue a life of progress, both individually and for their communities.  Help put promising young leaders in the running for this prestigious award.  Share this news with scholars who exemplify these characteristics inside and outside the classroom and encourage them to apply.  You also may download a program flyer. 

Applications for the GE-Reagan Foundation Scholarship Program will be accepted online until January 9, 2014.  Additional information, eligibility requirements, and a link to the application are available online.  You may also follow us on Facebook

Accelerated Baccalaureate Program at SOU

Click to View/Print

Update on Common App Issues

The Common Application, Inc. [mailto:so_update@commonapp.org]
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2013 12:01 AM
To: Janette Bunn
Subject: [SPAM] Statement of Commitment

The Common Application Statement of Commitment October 18, 2013 The last few days have comprised the most difficult period in The Common Application's nearly 40 years of service to the education community. You have no doubt read news stories and social media conversations about the challenges facing applicants, recommenders, and member colleges.  As an organization, we have been too slow to respond. That ends today. We have written this communication to highlight three core values of our mission, explain how we have fallen short in realizing them, and provide details about how we pledge to do better. Reliability. For many users, the new Common Application has not been a reliable service. We have tried to be transparent in other communications regarding the various issues users have experienced since the August 1 launch. Many have been solved for all users, and others have been solved for most users. Nonetheless, individual applicants and recommenders are still encountering problems related to account logins, application submission, and document uploads. In some instances, our support team can easily solve these problems for users who contact us through the Help Center. In others, we continue to research patterns among the individuals affected to ascertain where the root cause lies. Further details about support volume and response efforts appear below.  Beginning next week, we will be using our School Officials newsletter list to send daily updates to the counseling community, and we encourage you to subscribe if you have not already done so. Counselors, we ask for your help in sharing these updates with your students and families. As much as we would like to communicate this same information directly to applicants, messaging 800,000 registered users would create too big a strain on the system, exacerbating the very problems we are trying to solve. Our member colleges have faced similar disruptions in reliability, which have adversely impacted their internal processes. Members rely on us for the transmission of the documents and data needed to evaluate candidates, and each college has its own unique process and needs. We are in constant communication with these colleges to ensure they are prepared to receive and process applications and school forms, and we are confident that members will be able to do so successfully as major deadlines approach. To help you understand the complete landscape, we want to reinforce the following points: Students are successfully submitting applications in record numbers. Counselors and teachers using the Common App Recommender System are successfully submitting all school forms. Counselors and teachers using Naviance are successfully submitting School Reports, Teacher Evaluations, and Early Decision Agreements. Implementation of Fee Waiver forms and Optional Reports is imminent for this group. Final integration for Parchment users is imminent. All member colleges have access to every single application document that has been submitted to them, though some are not yet able to import application data into their internal information systems, which is a critical processing step. By highlighting these successful processes, we do not wish to minimize the challenges and frustrations of individual users and colleges, nor do we wish to paint a picture of a flawless system. Rather, we hope to convey in a responsible manner how the Common Application is functioning for the majority of users. Service. Our online Help Center for applicants and recommenders has been operating 24/7 since October 1. Historically, our average response time has been well under one hour. In the past few weeks, our response time for many users has exceeded this average by an unacceptable level. This increase is due to the complexity of some of the issues mentioned above. The time-intensive research required to investigate certain payment and login problems has created a backlog that has extended to all users seeking assistance. In the past 48 hours, we have released fixes that have resolved two of our most complex issues involving payment and the Chrome browser. The payment problem required intense collaboration with our third-party vendor.  The browser challenges, which resulted from the unexpected release of a new version, prompted immediate collaboration with Chrome support. The solutions we implemented to address these issues resulted in a steep and immediate decline in new support requests. From Tuesday to Wednesday, applicant requests declined 73%, and recommender requests declined 43%. Also, prior to the payment fix, we were researching and reconciling thousands of payment records on a daily basis. On Thursday, that number was 6. This significant progress will assist us in addressing the backlog and return us to a more normal response time. Many applicants, parents, counselors, and teachers continue to call for phone support, and we understand why. Speaking directly to a support representative is an assurance that one's problems and frustrations are being heard and addressed. Unfortunately, given the volume of users who interact with our system, phone support would immediately become unsustainable. In addition, the system information that is transmitted when a user submits a request through our Help Center is often critical in helping us identify and solve the problem. We assure you that every message submitted through our Help Center is evaluated by an individual member of our support team. These professionals work diligently to provide the most accurate and efficient assistance possible. There are times when the complexity of issues prevents them from responding as quickly as they or you would like, but they strive to provide the timeliest responses possible. Accuracy is also a central component of service. To that end, our member services team will work closely with any colleges who wish to adjust their deadlines to ensure that the new dates are reflected within our system. Integrity. If we lose sight of this value, the others cease to matter. Despite all the challenges we have faced, we have not forgotten the principles that guide us, even as we have struggled to attain them. We are unshakably committed to the mission of this association, and we pledge transparency and diligence as we work to fulfill it.  Many of you have grown weary of our continued pleas for patience and our assurances that we are working as quickly as we can to resolve outstanding issues. Your requests for precise timelines are understandable, and we would provide such details if we could. To do so, however, would be to make commitments that we might not be able to honor. With that in mind, we pledge to communicate as openly as possible regarding the challenges we face and our progress in addressing them. Moving forward, should we observe a widespread problem, we will inform you immediately using social media, even if the only information we can provide is an acknowledgement of the issue and a promise to share updates as they become available. For those of you who do not regularly follow social media, you can view our live Facebook and Twitter feeds directly on our website. All of us who work with and for The Common Application--from the Board of Directors to the staff to our technology partners at Hobsons--understand the significance of this moment, both for the college application process and for the reputation of the association itself. To those of you who have offered words of support and encouragement, we thank you. To those of you who have lost faith in our ability to adequately meet the needs of you and your students, we understand. We need to regain your trust, and we know that the burden is on us to make that happen. We are confident that we will. Board of Directors   President  Thyra Briggs  Harvey Mudd College  President-elect  Eric Furda  University of Pennsylvania  Past President  Carey Thompson  Rhodes College  Senior Counselor  Michael Pina  Greens Farms Academy  Danya Berry  Dayton Early College Academy  Jennifer Desjarlais Wellesley College   Heidi Green  Fayetteville-Manlius High School  Monica Inzer  Hamilton College  Kevin Kelly  University of Massachusetts Amherst  Greg Roberts  University of Virginia  Gail Sweezey Gettysburg College  Gil Villanueva  University of Richmond  Chris White  The Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High  Ex Officio Non-Voting  Rob Killion Executive Director Common Application Aba Blankson, Director of Communications The Common Application, Inc.

Study Guides for Chemeketa COMPASS Placement Tests

Below are study guides for the COMPASS placement tests. 

You can also go to act.org/compass for additional resources. 

In fact, you could take a look at these materials prior to taking the tests the first time.Many people could benefit from even spending 30-60 minutes looking at the study guides prior to testing.

 COMPASS Practice for Writing

 COMPASS Practice for Reading

 COMPASS Practice for College Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry

 COMPASS Practice for Pre-Algebra, Algebra

Highlights from the October 2013 Oregon University System Conference

General stuff

Tuition equity, signed into Oregon law in April, is now in effect. This means that undocumented students who earn a high school diploma or GED in Oregon and meet certain other requirements will be allowed to pay resident, rather than non-resident, tuition rates for a set period of time.

A wider percentage of students nationwide are taking the curriculum-based ACT instead of the SAT. The ACT rate in Oregon has increased to 34 percent.

Get FAFSA done in EARLY EARLY JANUARY. Oregon Opportunity Grant funds are gone by end of January. Federal work study funds also run out early in January.

Advise students to check their email (AND SPAM FOLDER) often for FAFSA related communications.

For juniors who started their electronic OSAC Activities charts, etc. last year, all that information should still be available on the version of the scholarship application being used this year.

About 120 Ford Scholarships are given out each year and cover 90 percent of college costs for eligible students

The OUS Viewbooks we normally receive this time of year will now be published in the spring. I have two samples of the mini-version released last month available in the ASPIRE office for reference. I will place them on the counter by all of the college catalogs.

OSU

With an 84% retention rate (of freshmen returning as sophomores) and a significant increase in freshmen this year, Oregon State has announced alterations to its admission process, including the addition of a wait-list policy. This will give OSU the opportunity to offer admission, as space is available, to some less-qualified applicants the college feels would be successful at OSU.  As a result, most new freshmen (for Fall 2014) will be considered for admission at the conclusion of the Nov. 1 Early Notification Application round; or after the Feb. 1 Priority Application deadline.  The changes provide OSU a control mechanism should the enrollment application demand by students be greater than the university’s freshmen capacity.

EOU

The 2013 biology graduates placed in the top 25 percent in the national Major Field Test in the sub-discipline of molecular biology and genetics.

OIT

The engineering program, climbed 25 spots in a year to No. 35 in the nation in U.S.News and World Report.

The Wilsonville campus now offers the full component of prerequisite courses for medical imaging technology and clinical laboratory sciences. As well, bachelor’s degrees in emergency medical services and in geomatics have been added there.

OSU Cascades

Will be expanding to a full four-year university by Fall 2015

PSU

The college is committed to helping students graduate in four years, saving thousands of dollars in tuition and other college costs. Full-time freshmen can enter into an agreement toward a four-year degree if they follow their course schedule; seek academic advising and maintain academic progress.

SOU

Merit-based scholarships will expand significantly. Full application fee waivers are available on a case-by-case basis. The House Seminars, or learning communities, where students work together under a common theme, started this year and will expand to six in 2014. The Honors College is in its first year: Honors students’ fees and tuition are covered by scholarships. Major and minor programs are now offered in emerging media and digital arts.

UO

Summit and Apex scholarships for the highest-achieving students  increased by 75 percent. Pathway Oregon, which provides full tuition and fees to Pell Grant-eligible Oregonians with a 3.40 GPA , will see funds increase 75 percent to $more than $1 million .

WOU

New academic programs are: Early childhood education, a non-licensure major in working with children from birth through fourth grade; and interdisciplinary studies, with focuses on things like public relations and community planning; environmental journalism and criminal investigation. WOU is the only public university in Oregon to offer a comprehensive textbook rental program, which has saved students there more than $1 million.