NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           CONTACT:      Sarah Idowu or Natalie Rule

News Release:  7.16.08                                                                 651.917.3525

ADMISSION POSSIBLE CITED IN NATIONAL REPORT

Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance Commends Evaluation Standards

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Admission Possible is featured in a national report released this month by the U.S. Congress’ Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, based in Washington, DC.  The report, “Early and Often: Designing a Comprehensive System of Financial Aid Information,” provided Admission Possible’s results-oriented evaluation efforts as an example of using evaluation to guide work done on behalf of the organization’s constituency. 

The full report is available at: www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/edlite-whatnew.html

The report, published in April, was widely released to the public last week. This is the advisory committee’s newest report offering best practices in providing early financial aid information to students and families, and is intended to serve as a guide for practitioners across the nation.

The report notes, “[Admission Possible] also measures aspects such as the number of students who fill out the FAFSA, the amount of scholarship offers, ACT score increases, and changes in student knowledge about the college and financial aid application processes. Admission Possible uses these results to guide programmatic decision making…. Such a comparison can help Admission Possible modify its current methods of delivering college access information as needed.”

“We are pleased to see that the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance has chosen evaluation as an important element of a successful program,” said Traci Parmenter, Chief Operating Officer of Admission Possible, “and particularly proud to have been selected as an example of that effort.”

Admission Possible provides comprehensive after-school college preparatory programming that includes significant curriculum time spent with students completing necessary forms to obtain federal and state aid as well as competitive private scholarships.  The 2008 class of 566 Admission Possible seniors – 99% who were admitted to college this year – have earned $1.3 million in private, competitive scholarships to date.

ABOUT ADMISSION POSSIBLE

Admission Possible is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping promising low-income high school students prepare for and earn admission to college.  Admission Possible works to make college possible by providing their students with four free critical services: (1) ACT and SAT test preparation; (2) intensive assistance in preparing college applications; (3) help in obtaining financial aid; and (4) guidance in the transition to college. Admission Possible currently serves 1,300 students at 17 high schools in the metro area, and has helped 98 percent of its students earn admission to college since its founding in 2000. 

ABOUT THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON STUDENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (Advisory Committee) is a Federal advisory committee chartered by Congress, operating under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA); 5 U.S.C., App. 2). The Advisory Committee provides advice to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education on student financial aid policy. The findings and recommendations of the Advisory Committee do not represent the views of the Agency, and this document does not represent information approved or disseminated by the Department of Education.

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