News

St. Olaf College is part of a diverse coalition of public and private colleges that is coming together with the goal of improving the college admission application process for all students.

The Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success is developing a free platform of online tools to streamline the experience of planning for and applying to college. The initial iteration of the planning tools will be available to high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors beginning in January 2016.

In creating this platform, these colleges and universities — which also include Carleton College and the University of Minnesota — hope to recast the college admission process from something that is transactional and limited in time into a more engaged, ongoing, and educationally reaffirming experience. They also hope to motivate a stronger college-going mindset among students of all backgrounds, especially those from low-income families or underrepresented groups who have historically had less access to leading colleges and universities.

“This free platform will allow high school students to assemble and share a digital portfolio with counselors, teachers, and mentors, which will hopefully alleviate some of the angst that college applications can generate,” says St. Olaf Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Chris George ’94. “And because students will be able to add multimedia elements such as images, audio recordings, and videos to this platform, it will provide us with new information to assist us in our holistic review of each applicant.”

The coalition currently includes more than 80 public and private universities and colleges across the United States that have made a commitment to make college affordable and accessible for students from diverse backgrounds, and for students to be successful in completing their education. The coalition, which continues to add members, will be working over the next few months to develop tools and processes that are intended to address many of the barriers that prevent students from attending college or successfully earning a degree.

“Instead of just submitting a written essay the summer before senior year, the coalition wants students to start building a multimedia application portfolio in ninth grade,” notes a story in the Pioneer Press that highlights the Minnesota schools involved in the coalition.

Later this year, the coalition will share details about new college planning and application tools that will streamline the admission and financial-aid processes and allow students to begin planning for college much earlier in their high school years. The online tools — which will include a digital portfolio, a collaboration platform, and an application portal — seek to reshape the process of applying to college as the culmination of students’ development over the course of their high school careers, reducing the unfamiliarity of the application and leveling the playing field for all students. The application will add another option to all the ways that students currently apply for college.

Members of the coalition include public universities that have affordable tuition along with need-based financial aid for in-state residents, and private colleges and universities that provide sufficient financial aid to meet the full, demonstrated financial need of every domestic student they admit. Coalition schools graduate at least 70 percent of their students within six years, with many having much higher graduation rates — including St. Olaf, which has a graduation rate of 87 percent.

“We’re excited to be a member of a group of colleges and universities committed to outcomes — something that St. Olaf has been a leader on since we launched our Outcomes initiative several years ago,” George says.