by Meredith Muller
Cottonwood High Community School Director
College Application Week is an initiative started by President Obama, placing importance on the act of applying to college as a way to get more students to attend! With communities around the country seeing success, CAW has become a national movement. This year at Cottonwood High, CAW took place November 8 – 11.
The process for students who want to apply to college during this week is streamlined. At Cottonwood High, students come down to the computer lab in the library during one of their senior English classes, which allows the majority of seniors to participate. In that 86 minute period, students receive a folder with helpful tips to applying to college, including their unofficial transcripts, and also a paper with a code to request official transcripts to send to the schools where they apply. Once they are done applying, they then request transcripts. Students are then able to get FAFSA information, tell the school where they applied, and make a pennant for the schools to which they applied.
During the week, we had college admissions representatives from Weber, Westminster, SLCC, University of Utah, Snow College, and Dixie State to help answer questions about each respective schools and answer any questions students may have had about applying in general. Many schools were also waiving fees to make things more accessible for students.
Volunteers were onsite to help answer student’s questions while applying, as well as assist in the check-in, check-out process. And now, a week after CAW, counselors are calling students individually to help them finish the applications that they started. This really helps students who were absent or were unable to complete applications in the one class period.
We know college application week works because last year we had 85 percent of Cottonwood seniors apply to college! This year, the number increased even more – with 90 percent of seniors at Cottonwood applying to college! That is an incredible number! We expect that we will reach the same goal this year. We are looking forward to celebrating them on what we call “Decision Day”, where we celebrate the students who have been accepted to their college!
Thanks to all the volunteers, schools, and community members who helped make CAW at Cottonwood High School a success!
