College Information - Applying to CSU, UC or California Community College and Other College Options

College Information: UC, CSU and California Community Colleges

 

Additonal College Resources -

 

  • Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) low-income and educationally disadvantaged students
    • (EOPS is a state-funded program designed to recruit and retain students who are economically and educationally disadvantaged. EOPS assists students in the development of their ability through academic support and financial assistance. The services of EOPS are sedigned to give students individualized attention and support to improve their chances for success.)

 

  • United States Department Of Education (USDOE) Financial Aid and College Scorecord To further empower students and families, today we released our first annual update of the redesigned College Scorecard, a college search tool that President Obama launched in September 2015 and that nearly 1.5 million users across the nation have accessed since. With over 4,000 institutions available for students and families to search, the College Scorecard provides answers to critical questions about each institution, like how likely students are to complete their degrees, how much debt students take out, and how much the students typically earn after attending. And the interactive website provides users with the ability to search by program, degree type, location, or by name of institution. All of this information is available at https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/.  

  • 10 Schools With the Lowest Out-of-state Tuition (U.S. News & World Report) 2016 article

    • At each of these 10 college campus schools, students pay less than $11,000 in college tution and fees per school year. From U.S. News survey of nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for the 2015 survey of undergraduate programs.

  •  

The article below is a great resource with some tips on how to ensure that every interaction a college has with you is a positive one:

"Polish your Online Image for the Admissions Process"

  • At BestColleges.com, our higher education experts take pride in their efforts to deliver quality college-planning, academic, and financial resources for students. Most recently, in an effort to help those young adults who may struggle with managing a tight budget, we republished the personal financial guide, Budgeting 101.

    • College is the first time that most young adults are living independently. Unfortunately, many don’t have the know-how to effectively manage their own finances - a critical skill when living on a limited student budget. The guide, found here - http://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/budgeting-in-college/ - covers the following information:

      • The importance of establishing a budget

      • How to track income and expenses

      • Tips for saving money

Affordable Ivy League College Options

DARTMOUTH:

 http://www.dartmouth.edu/apply/financialaid/

Dartmouth will eliminate tuition for undergraduates from families with incomes below $75,000; replace loans with scholarships; and create a leave term without earnings expectations. Dartmouth is committed to the philosophy that the cost of a college education should not be a deterrent to prospective applicants. We admit students on the basis of their accomplishments and potential to contribute to our community. Our decisions are need-blind, meaning that we admit the very best students and never stop to ask if they can afford to pay. We are also committed to making sure that Dartmouth is affordable and accessible to every student we admit.

If you're considering Dartmouth, don't hesitate to apply because you think your family won't be able to afford the cost of a Dartmouth education. We meet 100% of each student's demonstrated need for all four years of your undergraduate career.

In addition, indirect costs include an estimated books & miscellaneous expense of $2,999 along with the expenses associated with travel, health insurance and a computer. Students who will not be covered by their family's health insurance and/or who do not plan to bring a computer from home can arrange to make these purchases through Dartmouth. Insurance and computers purchased independently must meet minimum coverage and performance standards set by the College.

Please note: between 40 and 50 percent of each entering class is receiving need-based financial aid. Dartmouth offers a comprehensive need-based financial aid program, and guarantees to meet 100% of the demonstrated financial need of our students during their four years of undergraduate study. If you'd like to see what Dartmouth would expect your family to pay for one year of study here, please see our Financial Aid Cost Calculator.

Dartmouth also has a free Fly In Program for Native students

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nap/flyin/

Dartmouth's annual Native Fly-In program provides talented high school seniors with an unparalleled opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of the College's academic resources, student services and admission & financial aid criteria. Program participants enjoy extensive interaction with members of the Dartmouth Native community along with a cross section of college students, faculty and staff through a mix of information sessions, academic presentations and social events. Complimentary meals and on-campus housing are included for Fly-In guests with round trip transportation assistance.

Dartmouth Native American Program.

VISION

The Native American Program will provide leadership for Dartmouth as it works to fulfill its founding mission to educate Native students.  A nationally recognized program, we will work in partnership with Dartmouth and tribal communities to educate and empower Native students to be capable of addressing the social, political and economic needs of Native peoples.

MISSION

The Native American Program collaborates with Dartmouth’s faculty and staff, as well as tribal communities, to assist Native students in their personal, social, intellectual and ethical development so they can become life-long learners and responsible leaders in our global society.  We complete our work with high regard for the unique cultural experiences and perspectives of Native peoples.

Dartmouth Native American Program

 

Harvard University announced recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free... no tuition and no student loans!  
To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495-1581

 

YALE:
http://www.yale.edu/sfas/finaid/

New Haven, Conn. — Yale University President Richard C. Levin announced today that Yale is reducing the average cost of sending a student to Yale College by over 50% for families with financial need. This new policy will apply to all students returning to campus in the fall as well as entering freshmen. This represents the largest increase in spending for financial aid in the University’s history.

The reduction in costs will be spread across a broad range of incomes. Families with incomes below $120,000 will see their contributions cut by more than 50%, while most families with incomes between $120,000 and $200,000 will see cost reductions of 33% or more.

Families earning less than $60,000 annually will not make any contribution toward the cost of a child’s education, and families earning $60,000 to $120,000 will typically contribute from 1% to 10% of total family income. The contribution of aided families earning above $120,000 will average 10% of income.

Yale also is increasing the number of families who qualify for aid, eliminating the need for students to take loans, enhancing its grants to families with more than one child attending college, exempting the first $200,000 of family assets from the assessment of need, and increasing expense allowances for foreign students during school vacation periods. Yale calculates financial aid by taking into consideration a family's total income and assets, family size and number of children in college, family medical bills, state of residence, and a number of other factors.

COLLEGE HORIZONS:

http://collegehorizons.publishpath.com/about

WHY COLLEGE HORIZONS?

Who we are:  College Horizons is a non-profit organization that supports the higher education of Native American students by providing college and graduate admissions workshops to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students/participants from across the nation.  Two programs are offered in the summer:  College Horizons services current 10th-11th grade high school students and Graduate Horizons services college students and college graduates.

First things first-get your basic financial aid package started:

The office of Federal Student Aid provides grants, loans, and work-study funds for college or career school. They offer more than $150 billion each year to help millions of students pay for higher education. Federal Student Aid, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the largest provider of student financial aid in the nation.

To Get the Free Application For Federal Student Aid (FASA Click here) https://fafsa.ed.gov

OTHER IVY LEAGUE INFORMATION:

How Ivy League Admissions Works : Below, you'll find information about the admissions, Native American Programs and financial aid policies of each Ivy League school.

Dartmouth College – How Admissions Works

Eleazar Wheelock a minister who had previously sought to establish a school to train Native Americans as Christian missionaries founded Dartmouth. Wheelock's ostensible inspiration for such an establishment resulted from his relationship with Samson Occum, a Mohegan Indian. Occom, accompanied by the Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker, traveled to England in 1766 to raise money from churches. With these funds, they established a trust to help Wheelock.  Despite their fundraising promises of educating Natives Dartmouth graduated less than 20 American Indian students until 1970. John Kemmeny became president of Dartmouth in 1970 and during his administration; Dartmouth became more proactive in recruiting and retaining minority students and revived its founding commitment to provide education for American Indians. Kemeny made Dartmouth a pioneer in student use of computers, equating computer literacy with reading literacy.  Dartmouth currently has the highest percentage of Native scholars of any college in the Ivy League with 2.3% of the student body being American Indian.

Brown University – How Admissions Works

Native Americans At Brown (NAB) is an organization that supports the interests and actions of Native students on the Brown campus. We act as a support network for those students who are far from home, and a center through which the local native community can have a voice. Further, we work to bring political and cultural events of significance in Indian Country to the Brown Community.

Columbia University - How Admissions Works

MISSION STATEMENT

Founded in 1999, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER) at Columbia University is a vibrant teaching, research, and public engagement space. The Center's mission is to support and promote the most innovative thinking about race, ethnicity, indigeneity and other categories of difference to better understand their role and impact in modern societies. What makes CSER unique is its attention to the comparative study of racial and ethnic categories in the production of social identities, power relations, and forms of knowledge in a multiplicity of contexts, including the arts, social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.

To promote its mission, the Center organizes conferences, seminars, exhibits, film screenings, and lectures that bring together faculty, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, with diverse interests and backgrounds. CSER partners with departments, centers, and institutes at Columbia and works with colleagues and organizations on campus and off campus in order to facilitate an exchange of knowledge.

Cornell University - How Admissions Works

Mission

The American Indian Program strives to develop new generations of educated Native and non-Native peoples who will contemplate, study and contribute to the building of Nation and community in Native America.

Goals

  • Develop recruitment and retention practices to enable Native American students to complete their academic programs at Cornell.
  • Provide a challenging curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students in Native American Studies that encompasses a variety of disciplines, utilizes university resources and reflects an accurate portrayal of Indigenous Peoples within historical, social and contemporary arenas.
  • Build the intellectual foundation for the resurgence of Native community and Nation through rigorous scholarship and research.
  • Develop an outreach program that facilitates the learning environment through a comprehensive dialogue grounded in Indigenous culture.

Harvard University - How Admissions Works

The Harvard University Native American Program is uniquely situated to bring together students, faculty, and staff from all parts of the University as well as friends and community members from peer schools and the surrounding Cambridge/Boston area.

Princeton University - How Admissions Works

 (NAAP) is a student organization/support group for students comprised of Native Hawaiian, American Indian, and Native Alaskan members. We host a variety of events throughout the year, such as movie nights, powwows, and dinner discussions. Check out the calendar for information about our upcoming events.

University of Pennsylvania - How Admissions Works

Natives at University of Pennsylvania: Originally founded in 1994, is a student organization representing Native students on Penn's campus. NAP undergraduates and graduate students meet with University faculty and staff to increase awareness of contemporary Indigenous issues, attend interschool events such as the All-Ivy Native Conference, work with the Office of Admissions to sponsor recruitment efforts and host Penn's Annual Powwow every year. Apart from engaging with the Penn community, NAP students also attend events hosted by local tribes and are supported by the partnerships they create within their own communities as well

Yale University - How Admissions Works

Native American Cultural Center Mission

The NACC strives to maintain a permanent and prominent Native American presence at Yale that incorporates and supports the success of future Native leaders through recruitment, encouragement, mentoring, service, and the fostering of a community that makes Yale the most sought after Ivy Institution for Native American achievement, research and solidarity.

NACC Core Values

  • Nurturing individual and community wholeness through collaboration, family, kinship, and spirituality.
  • Sustaining cultural preservation by acknowledging history and responsibility.
  • Promoting respect with pride, inclusion and recognition of diversity.
  • Fostering leadership through accountability, transparency, assertiveness, and honesty. We invite and encourage interested members of the Yale community to attend any of our events.

Stanford University - How Admissions Works

Admissions At Stanford

Financial Aid At Stanford

Stanford Native American Cultural Center

 

Ours is a history of working to improve the quality of life for American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Indigenous Pacific Islanders. Our community reaches out to new students and their families to help them adjust to life at Stanford - to help them realize goals and prepare for the future.

 

STANFORD, California (Reuters) - Amid calls by some U.S. lawmakers for wealthy universities to lower tuition costs, officials at Stanford University said on Wednesday they would no longer charge tuition to students from families earning less than $100,000 a year. For students whose families earn less than $60,000 a year, Stanford University will not charge for either tuition or room and board, officials at the prestigious university near San Francisco said.

COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMS:

ACT: This test is used for College Readiness Assessment and tests Benchmarks for Reading & Science.

PSAT: Shorter version of SAT designated for 10-11th graders. Practice taking College Admissions Test:  http://www.collegeboard.org   

  • 2nd week in October

  • Get personalized SAT Study Plan

  • Explore College Majors & Careers

  • Learn about Scholarship Programs

  • Take a Personality Test

  • See which AP courses are needed in college

  • Must take PSAT in 11th grade as requirement IF APPLYING for NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

  • 3 hours, 45 minutes in Writing, Critical reading & Math

SAT: (Scholarship Assessment Test Tests the academic skills and knowledge of what is learned in school. It helps colleges understand how a student thinks, solve problems and communicate. www.collegeboard.org/

  • Fee Waiver requirements – waiver valid until August 31st of following year (annually). See your PHS Academic Counselor for Fee Waiver.

  • Multiple Testing Dates Offered both Fall & Spring Semester – See Web site for specific Testing Dates/times. On-line or hard copy registration available. See your Counselor for additional information or brochures.

  • TESTS/Measures:

    • Critical Reading: sentence completion and passage-based reading questions 

    • MATH:  multiple choice & student produced response

    • WRITING- written essay and multiple-choice