EQUITY: The Fair Opportunity Project provides college admissions information to seniors across the nation.
By Matthew Saenz, Editor
For many stressed teenagers, the college admissions process represents a great unknown; college-bound students must navigate their way through numerous deadlines, essays and tests, all for an application that they do not fully comprehend. In essence, high school students want to know what universities around the nation look for. In desperation, students and parents with significant financial resources will hire an independent education counselor (IEC), who, among other tasks, is entrusted with providing his or her expertise on college admissions.The IEC will help write and review essays, suggest class loads and in extreme cases, provide volunteer opportunities for students.
In recent years, more families have hired an IEC to help their students get accepted to a university. According to Barbara Booth of CNBC, upwards of 100,000 students may utilize these counselors, which come at a significant financial tag. Dr. Katherine Cohen, the founder of an educational consulting company in New York City, reported that families “can spend upwards of $100,000 to $200,000, depending on their chosen program and services.”
While beneficial, the financially disadvantaged are excluded from this opportunity. The Fair Opportunity Project (FOP) hopes to change this reality.
On October 15th, 2016, Poly received an email attachment from a representative of the Fair Opportunity Project, an independent coalition of “20+ college students, 10 advisors, and 200 high school counselors from across the nation.” Attached was the Fair Opportunity Project’s College Application Guide, a free resource that provides detailed information on college admissions and financial aid.
Within the email, the representative, referred to as Cole, detailed the rationale for the guide’s inception. Guided by a mantra of believing in “human potential, opportunity, and the ability to succeed,” the coalition understood, as former high school students, the rigor and confusion of the college admissions process. They believed that this confusion stemmed from a lack of easily accessible information. Inspired, this group worked together to develop this guide, which has since been distributed to every public school in the U.S., in the hopes that “[it] can [be] forwarded to [our] community’s high school students.”
The guide is split into five major sections. “The College Application” details all major components of the college application process, from the college search, to standardized tests to letters of recommendation. “Affording College” summarizes all of the available financial aid, from the FAFSA to the CSS Profile, and provides information on available scholarships for different students. “Before College Applications” gives an overview of everything students should aim to do before their senior year, including summer activities and managing a course load. “Essays that Worked” provides examples of responses to college prompts of past years. Finally, “Feedback and Additional Tools” provides the necessary avenues for critique of the document, and additional resources that students can use to supplement their knowledge.
When given this document to peruse, current seniors have come to wholeheartedly believe in this document. “As a senior currently stressed with the college admissions process, this guide is illuminating and a welcome sight,” David Schwitzgebel (12) said. “If this guide could somehow be continually emphasized in our school, I feel my future peers will no longer be as overwhelmed by the current admissions system” Schwitzgebel said. Danielle Oyama (12) also agrees with the potential benefits of this document. “The biggest obstacle in overcoming college applications is being proactive throughout the process, which one cannot do without the necessary information” Oyama said. “This document seems like a good first step,” Oyama said.
Poly administration is also encouraged by this document. Poly Principal Dr. Michael Roe envisions this document serving as an ideal supplement to the information provided by Poly’s guidance counselors. “I think one of the biggest issues we have [at Poly] is access and engagement in the [college admissions] process […] if this guide works, we should see greater dissemination of information across Poly, which is great” Roe said. Poly counselor Patricia Miller was also optimistic about the potential benefits of the document. “As a whole, this document should invigorate students to think more about planning for college, even before their senior year,” Miller said.
This guide does not guarantee admissions acceptances, nor does it purport to. But for Poly students and students around the nation, this guide appears to be a good initial step in understanding the intricacies of applying to college.
If you would like a downloadable copy of your own, visit http://fairopportunityproject.com.