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On Sept. 5, the Guidance Department hosted the first College App Day at the high school in the media center. Seniors were able to meet with representatives from 14 different in-state colleges, learn more about each institution and apply for free. Some schools even offered on-the-spot admissions.

“College app day is encouraged by Learn More Indiana to get students to apply and apply early,” guidance counselor Connie Poston said. “I thought it would be a good opportunity for our seniors to be able to apply to many colleges for free and get their college applications done so they can get it out of the way.”

The free applications benefited many of the students who wanted to apply to several different schools. Approximately 138 seniors applied to IUPUI, which typically has costs $65 per application, meaning students saved $8,970 with IUPUI’s application alone.

“I applied on college app day because it’s free applications and it is really awesome that you get to be accepted on the spot,” Morgan Gilardi said. “I applied to ISU, IUPUI, Depauw and Butler, and I want to go into nursing.”

Gilardi was not the only one who took advantage of being able to avoid the costs by applying in person.

“It was free and a really good opportunity to apply to the colleges that I was really interested in,” Riko Williams, who applied to ISU, Butler, Depauw and IUPUI, said. “It was really stressful trying to get everything done in a certain amount of time, but it is definitely worth it.”

Along with cost benefits, seniors found applying during college app day to be more convenient and easier than navigating online applications. By meeting with representatives from different colleges and getting to talk with them in person, many students found they got a better understanding of the environment at their choice school.

“I didn’t know anything about [Anderson University] except that it was a really good Christian school,” Haley Deal said. “After leaving, I had learned that it was more private than public and they have a beautiful campus. I want to play lacrosse in college, and I found out that they have a team, which only interested me more.”
The on-the-spot admission to college was an important aspect of the day.

“We had several schools offer on-site admissions, which means that you could come down, have them look at your transcript, fill out the application and they could accept you right then and there,” Poston said. “The seniors who were accepted aren’t going to have anything to worry about and they can focus on their schoolwork and finishing their senior year strong.”

In total, 410 applications were submitted by 179 seniors. 212 of those applications were accepted by a college, and 195 of them are still being considered by schools.