July 8, 2016

Dear Admissions Director and Staff,

Due to changes in the FAFSA timeline and the implementation of Prior-Prior-Year FAFSA, the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) is making significant changes to our College Application Week initiative. This year, we’re declaring October Michigan College Month. Over 300 high schools across Michigan are participating in this initiative, with the goal that by the conclusion of October, every graduating senior has applied to at least one college, completed at least one scholarship application, and filed the FAFSA. College and university support has been instrumental in the success of past College Application Week campaigns, and this year is no different – we need your help.

In preparation for Michigan College Month, we are contacting you today to outline the ways your institution can get involved and support Michigan College Month.In the following letter and included attachment, we outline the various requests we have for our college and university partners.

Michigan College Month is part of the American College Application Campaign, a national effort to increase the number of first-generation and low-income students who pursue a postsecondary education. The purpose is to help high school seniors navigate the college admissions process and ensure that each participating student submits at least one admissions application. While activities and schedules vary from state to state, everyone is striving toward the common goal of providing every graduating senior an opportunity to apply to college.In Michigan, we are expanding this initiative to include FAFSA and scholarship completion throughout the month of October.

Ways your institution can support Michigan College Month:

  1. Share information about changes to admissions timeline in response to early FAFSA
  2. Waive online and/or paper application fee
  3. Provide paper applications
  4. Volunteer
  5. Send mascots or swag to participating high schools

Admissions Timeline Updates

Some colleges are changing their admissions timeline to reflect the early availability of the FAFSA. MCAN hopes to provide a centralized list of these changes to best support our participating high schools and students. Please notify MCAN of these changes so we can pass the information along to high schools. We have included a form for your institution to complete that will allow you to indicate these changes.

Waiving Application Fee
A critical component of Michigan College Month is helping minimize the financial barrier that a college application fee may place on some of our low-income students.While we educate our host site coordinators to understand and use the NACAC and College Board application fee waivers, there are still students in need that do not qualify for these waivers.We encourage your college toconsider participating in Fee Waiver Fridays and waiving the college application fee every Friday during the month of October to demonstrate your support for this initiative and to help the students who feel your institution is the right fit but cannot afford the application fee. We have included aform with this letter for your institution to complete indicating your willingness and ability to waive fees.

Paper Applications
While all participating high schools are encouraged to assist students in completing online applications, we find some high schools are still in need of paper applications. Typically this is due to the high school lacking the appropriate technology structure (lack of working computers or internet) to appropriatelyassist all graduating seniors during the week. High schools will notify us by September 12 if they are in need of paper applications. We are seeking your input on how best to notify you of the paper application requests to ensure paper applications reach the high schools. The form provided with this letter includes space for the paper application process.

Volunteer
College representatives are the ideal volunteers!Our volunteers are an invaluable resource to Michigan College Month and every year the majority of our volunteers come from colleges and universities. Our volunteers contribute to the growth and success we see each year. Every high school plans a schedule for the week to meet their student and building needs. The volunteer needs of each high school are typically available by October 1 after the high schools have returned from summer vacation and planned their schedule. Because each high school has a unique schedule, we ask potential volunteers to contact the site coordinators directly.

Sending Mascots or Swag to Participating High Schools

College participation often takes Michigan College Month efforts to the next level. While we don’t encourage colleges to recruit during College Application Week, we love to see colleges support participating high schools by providing swag or sending mascots along with volunteers. We know colleges don’t have the capacity to support every participating high school, but we’d love for you to get involved in supporting some of your local schools.

Thank you for helping Michigan students take this important step toward their education after high school. Questions or feedback? You can contact me at any time.

Sincerely,

Christi Taylor, Director of Statewide Initiatives

Michigan College Access Network

517.316.1713

Please submit completed form by August 8, 2016

Form link:

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