The stress of applying for colleges is something that several Creek seniors currently find themselves overwhelmed with right now. Colorado College has created a new admissions program with three initiatives designed to help students who have previously struggled with disadvantages with their application.

A drastic difference that was made was the test-optional policy; and CC is not the only school that has recently made this change. This policy allows students to choose whether they want to submit their SAT and ACT scores, and there is no penalty if they don’t.

The school advertises this new policy as a way to give a better chance of acceptance to “first-generation students, low-income, and traditionally underserved students,” as explained on their website. The website also explains that only 8% of students with a low-income situation engage in test prep for standardized tests compared to the 78% of affluent students that do test prep. 

Along with this, the majority of affluent students retake tests several times to improve their scores, which is much less common for low-income students. With this policy, CC hopes to remove the disadvantage that low-income applicants struggle with.

 This policy, however, does not apply to everyone. International applicants, homeschooled applicants, division I recruited athletes, and students coming from secondary schools that provide written evaluations without accompanying grades are all required to submit their testing scores. 

The Colorado pledge is another huge change that is specific to low-income applicants living in Colorado. This pledge is designed to help make college more affordable for families that otherwise would not support their child financially in college. 

For families with an income of less than $60,000 a year, the family does not have to pay for tuition, room, or board.

For families with an income between $60,000 and $125,000 a year, they do not have to pay for tuition and can qualify for a grant to cover a portion of room and board. 

For families with an income between $125,000 and $200,000 a year, the family is required to pay generally the same cost as a flagship state university in Colorado. Families that earn over $200,000 do not qualify for this pledge. 

This pledge does away with the college’s of home equity for financial aid packages. The student must complete a financial aid application each year of school, but if their income and assets do not change, they will continue to qualify. 

The final piece of the new admissions program is the stroud scholars program. The program was built to honor the first two African American Students who graduated from Colorado College in 1931, Kelly Dolphus Stroud and Effie Stroud Frazier. 

This is a summer program for highschool students with a mission of cultivating quantitative reasoning and writing skills. Students who successfully complete the program for three summers will earn admission to CC and those that meet the requirements are guaranteed the new financial aid program. 

These three initiatives were carefully designed by the office of admissions at CC with the hope to boost access to college. The stroud scholars program will start with its first group of rising sophomores in July of 2020, and the test-optional policy and Colorado pledge have begun with the applications for the fall 2020 school year.