Ahead of the Class: Xap.com Expands Services with Comprehensive National Destination for College-Bound Students
Innovator in paperless online college applications offers virtual campus tours, financial aid applications and more.
Los Angeles, CA – September 25, 2000 – Back to school stress has officially set in, and no one is stressing more than students beginning the complicated process of selecting and applying to a college or university.
But one company wants to alleviate some of that stress.
Xap (pronounced "zap"), a pioneer in electronic and web-based information management systems for college-bound students, today announced the company's expansion to a national scale with Xap.com, its new one-stop destination for students and their families.
"The college application process is one of the most important and stressful times for students and their families, but it doesn't have to be so difficult," said Xap President and CEO Allen Firstenberg, who created the company after helping his daughter negotiate the cumbersome and time-intensive college application process.
"The site offers everything a student needs to make important decisions about colleges and financial aid."
Xap.com's unique model is based on forming close working relationships with colleges and universities.
This is an integral part of the long-term contractual relationships educational associations throughout the country have established with Xap.
As a result, universities and colleges help keep their data up to date, providing students and their families the most current and accurate information available.
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, there are roughly 16 million potential college-bound students, grades 8 though 12, and an additional 15 million students enrolled in college in the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Education has found that the number of students graduating from high school is increasing by 1.7 percent a year and will hit an all-time high in 2008.
"The potential is there to help literally millions of students every year," adds Firstenberg.
"But beyond just college-bound students, we're providing services to community college transfer students, students already enrolled in four-year colleges, graduate students, parents and guidance counselors."
Through Xap.com's free services, students can quickly and easily:
- Plan ahead for admissions requirements, including academic curriculum and tests
- Select a college that best meets their needs and interests
- Take virtual multimedia campus tours
- Apply for admissions online, with auto populating forms to cut time considerably
- Select majors and research careers (both during college and after graduation)
- Research scholarship and financial aid opportunities
- Complete financial aid applications online
- Establish direct e-mail communication with colleges
- Utilize the Xap Pack, a personal tool that helps keep track of everything in progress, including status of applications, career options, financial aid programs, etc.
Helping Students Apply Themselves: Goodbye Typewriters, Hello Electronic Applications
Next to selecting the actual college or university, one of the biggest challenges an applicant faces is the application itself.
While times have changed, many of the requisite forms have not.
The majority of today's teenagers have never used a typewriter, nor do they have ready access to one.
Through Xap.com, these students now have a viable solution other than printing out the applications and completing them by hand.
Xap.com's point and click features allow students to reuse data across all applications, decreasing the multiple-application process from days to hours.
Students never have to enter data more than once and can use it across admissions and financial aid applications, and much more, for colleges and universities across the United States.
Xap.com includes a comprehensive current database of colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Its search engine can be used to access the websites of more than 3,700 colleges and universities.
Students can take multimedia interactive tours of many colleges and universities using any device with Internet access.
These tours provide interactive multimedia descriptions of campuses, sports and activities, student life and admission and tuition requirements.
Xap.com Websites - A One-Stop Resource for Students and Their Families
Xap has been helping students with the college planning process for several years through the design and development of numerous Mentor websites.
The first student services website created by Xap was CSUMentor for the California State University system in 1997.
It is the only place that students can apply electronically to any of the 22 CSU campuses.
More than one million students have visited CSUMentor in the last 12 months, and student usage continues to grow dramatically each year.
In addition to California, Xap has also created or is in the process of creating regional Mentor websites in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Xap has transferred the knowledge and experience from its Mentor sites into the development of Xap.com.
One of the most important features of Xap.com is the comprehensive financial aid module.
All aspects of student aid opportunities are fully and clearly described, including areas on grants, scholarships, and loans.
The system also introduces students to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and will allow students to link to it online.
The financial aid module also includes an estimator that takes just a minute to two to use, and informally calculates items such as expected family contribution (EFC), state university grant eligibility and estimated student loan eligibility.
Service and Convenience, Provided Free of Charge
Xap.com's services are all provided to students free of charge.
The only fees associated with the site are the standard application fees charged directly by the colleges and universities.
In addition, the site ensures the highest level of confidentiality.
For students that need assistance with the site or a particular feature, Xap.com offers exceptional customer service through both a national toll-free call center and fast e-mail response.
"Xap provides colleges and universities with a faster and more efficient way to process applications, as well as increased access to more, better-prepared students," said Jim Maraviglia, Executive Director of Admissions and Recruitment at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
"Xap has opened the lines for direct communication with prospective students, making it an excellent recruiting tool as well."
About Xap
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, Xap Corporation was formed in 1996, focusing on the creation of novel and comprehensive Internet-based information management systems for students.
Xap.com is the company's national one-stop destination site for college-bound students and their families.
To date, more students have used and submitted Xap's electronic applications than any other electronic application service.
Xap maintains strong relationships with the U.S. Department of Education, statewide education associations, and more than 1000 colleges and universities throughout the country.
