In college admissions, the direct approach may aid students AND schools

First-year Adams State University student Natrielle Shorty, clad in a pair of hip-length rubber waders, swayed in the rapids of North Crestone Creek, fighting to keep her balance—and her dignity.

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In California, proactivity is a plus

Milana Waggoner was already questioning whether she wanted to attend college when educators at Corona High School instructed her and her classmates to apply through a pilot program that gives them a guaranteed spot at most California State University campuses.

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Hawaii’s system catches the wave

When students at Farrington High School attend the annual kuleana fair, an event whose name is the Hawaiian word for “responsibility,” they play a game that simulates the financial challenges they’re bound to face in life.

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Confidence climbing in Wisconsin

The first time Eiziah Lieblein got a response to a college application, it came in a 9-by-12 envelope emblazoned with a black panther.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

There’s a memory common to most of us—perhaps painfully common: With our high school years winding down and graduation day approaching, we anxiously perused the daily mail, hoping for that long-awaited acceptance letter from our college of choice.

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The stories in this issue of Focus were reported and written by Jamaal Abdul-Alim, a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C., where he has covered higher education policy since 2008. Abdul-Alim broke into the news business in the 1990s as a crime reporter for the old Milwaukee Sentinel while an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He was a staff writer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a decade, served as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2008, and was a Spencer Education Journalism Fellow at Columbia University in 2014. He is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Writing | Jamaal Abdul-Alim
Editing | David S. Powell, and Stephanie Wang
Editorial assistance | Ruth Holladay
Photos | Shawn Spence
Video Production: Michael Jensen
Design | IronGate Creative

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