Streamlining College Admissions
One Web site likely to handle applications for all Colorado schools.
By Julie Poppen, News Staff Writer
June 8, 2001
Would-be students may soon be able to apply to any college in the state through one Web site.
No more complex applications or duplicated effort.
And lots of personalized advice.
The program, called ColoradoMentor, is a $4.2 million initiative aimed at making it easier for Colorado students to go to college.
It is expected to be operating in a year.
"We don't have as many Coloradans as we should going to college," said Tim Foster, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
"(ColoradoMentor) is going to be one of the leading efforts in that regard."
In Colorado, only 37.9 percent of high school graduates go to college by age 19.
The national average is 39.7 percent.
ColoradoMentor does more than file applications.
It also lets students plug in their interests and aptitudes to learn what campus might best meet their needs.
Further, it can estimate financial aid eligibility and amounts, tap directly into the federal financial aid site and get tips on how to avoid loan default.
The system is capable of picking out only top test scores and sending those to prospective colleges.
For the student, there is no cost beyond admissions fees.
The secure site can archive a student's personal portfolio, as well and send the student reminders about locations for taking the SAT or ACT, even courses the student will need to meet entrance criteria.
The site includes a database of every high school course in the United States.
The program even ranks campuses based on student criteria, such as size.
The University of Northern Colorado, University of Denver, Regis University and Colorado College have signed onto the new Web site, but Foster said he expects all colleges in the state to be part of it eventually.
The state will contract with California-based Xap Corp.
The startup costs total nearly $700,000.
After that, maintenance of the Internet portal will cost $700,000 per year, which will be covered by funds leveraged through the Colorado Student Loan Program.
Costs are covered for five years.
Xap launched its first Web portal for the 22-campus California State University system four years ago and has since spread to 1,800 campuses nationwide.
State Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, an advisory member of the commission, asked whether the system would increase the number of Colorado students enrolled in Colorado colleges.
Allen Firstenberg, Xap CEO and president, said that in the California system, applications increased but that the percentage of students accepted has remained the same.
In other business Thursday, the commission approved seven additional majors -- including psychology and Spanish -- for elementary education students at CU-Boulder.
The move brings the total of approved majors for elementary education students to 18 and the number of majors for secondary education students to 23.
The commission is charged with approving teacher education programs.
The process has been controversial because the commission had initially recommended scrapping several majors for teachers because they didn't graduate students in four years or meet K-12 content standards.
