Applying to College is About to Get Easier for Colorado High School Students
By Oakland L. Childers, Colorado Daily Staff Writer
June 2001
The Colorado Department of Higher Education is preparing to launch a new Web site called ColoradoMentor.com that will streamline the college application and financial aid process for most colleges and universities in the state.
The plan for the new site was unveiled at the Colorado Commission on Higher Education's (CCHE) monthly meeting at the Colorado School of Mines on Thursday.
By logging on to the ColoradoMentor Web site, students will have access to the Web sites of all the schools in the state and can submit multiple applications to different schools.
Allen Firstenberg, president of Xap Corporation, the California company which is developing the site, said online applications will be submitted by students to ColoradoMentor.
From there, those applications will be sent out to campus admissions offices at the schools the student is interested in.
Firstenberg said ColoradoMentor will be a tool to help ease the pain of preparing for and applying to college.
"(The site) is designed specifically for students and parents to help them understand higher education," said Firstenberg.
"A lot of kids don't understand where they should be going."
Firstenberg said the site will also link all the high schools in the state into the system.
Students can access the site as early as junior high to begin shaping their future educational plans.
"In the eighth grade," said Firstenberg, "it looks at what the student is interested in, and helps guide them through meeting those requirements."
Tim Foster, executive director of the CCHE, said the site will help increase the number of Coloradans who attend college.
"Not enough Colorado kids are going to college, " said Foster.
"Mentor is going to be one of the leading efforts in that area."
Several states, including North Carolina and California, already have Mentor sites, according to Firstenberg.
Julie Campbell, a college counselor at Hollywood High School in Hollywood, Calif., was on hand at the CCHE meeting to praise Xap's site.
Campbell said she uses the site with her students, who enjoy the simplicity of the system.
"I can't say enough about this program," said Campbell.
"The input I get from (my students) is "it's a no-brainer."
My basic message is that if my students can use this program, then certainly yours can."
Jeanne Adkins, director of policy and planning for the CCHE, said the site is scheduled to be up and running in one year.
The total cost of the program, Adkins said, will be $700,000 per year with a start-up cost of around the same amount.
The Department of Higher Education has already secured the funding for the first five years, she said.
Firstenberg said he expects all of Colorado's institutions of higher education to participate in the site, but has not yet reached agreements with all of them.
Adkins said the CCHE has set no timetable for when all the colleges and universities who wish to participate in the program must be on board.
ColoradoMentor could eventually include not only colleges and universities, but also private occupational schools, Adkins said.
