How March Madness Makes Applying for College Fun
Mya Walker, left, and Nicole Webster with the check the Early College at Guilford received for winning March Madness last year. Photo courtesy of shift_ed.
It can be hard to get high school students excited about the process leading up to college and sometimes local organizations have to get creative. That’s what shift_ed did when it was trying to find a way to spread the word about its last-dollar tuition scholarship. And it looked to one of North Carolina’s most popular pastimes: Basketball.
Whether you’re a UNC or Duke fan (or, fine, any other), you know that March is the time for basketball. It’s when the NCAA tournament plays out and all of the teams vying for the championship show us what they’ve got.
shift_ed is a non-profit that works with a variety of partners to provide individualized support to K-12 students, and one of its initiatives is a scholarship that can provide up to $1,350 for public college and up to full tuition cost covered for partnered private institutions. Students may also qualify for the $1,250 Armfield Acceleration Grant that can be used to pay for expenses beyond tuition costs.
shift_ed decided that leveraging March Madness might be a good strategy for getting students to apply for its scholarships.
“It’s so simple. It takes students like five minutes to complete,” Mya Walker, director of post secondary initiatives for shift_ed, said of her organization’s scholarship application. “No GPA. No letters of recommendation. No essays. None of that.”
Even so, it can be tough getting students to take the step. So, to get them excited, shift_ed has 27 schools in Guilford County on board with a March Madness competition. Here’s how the website describes it.
“Graduating seniors can go to shift-ed.org/scholarship to apply for scholarships now, and not only are they taking a bold step to support their future, but they are also scoring points for their schools in the competition. To advance, schools must increase the percentage of graduating seniors registered for the shift_ed scholarship. After the five-week competition, the winning school will walk away with $2,000 for the counseling department and a prize for every participating senior.”
Schools are paired with each other each week, and the school within that pairing that increases the percentage of shift_ed applications the furthest, moves to the next round. Updated brackets are published every week and should look familiar to any basketball fan.
Nicole Webster is a counselor at the Early College at Guilford, and they were the winners of March Madness last year. She said the contest is a good way to get students interested in the college-going process and offers the opportunity to talk with students about ways to pay for college.
“I think everyone likes a little friendly competition and the rewards that come with it,” she said.
Her school has participated since the contest started more than five years ago, but last year was the first time they won. She said she followed the same system for the shift_ed scholarship that she uses to get students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
“But last year the students and the parents just really caught hold of it,” she said.
The shift_ed scholarship and FAFSA are closely linked together. The FAFSA is the document that students must fill out to find out what federal and state financial aid they qualify for. While students aren’t required to fill out the FAFSA for March Madness, they can’t be considered for the shift_ed scholarship unless they do so by July. By filling out the FAFSA, they can see all the types of aid they qualify for and ultimately can pair the shift_ed scholarship with whatever else they receive to pay for college.
Webster starts talking about FAFSA while students are still in the ninth grade. She goes to personal finance classrooms when the subject of paying for college comes up and explains to them the FAFSA, scholarships and different ways of getting money for college.
Junior year, all the students at her school are already taking college classes. She has them every Wednesday for a seminar and starts taking them through the college application process.
“They’re with me every week. We’re talking about building that college list. We’re looking for scholarships,” she said. “Once we’re in senior year, my students have already been equipped with those tools and that knowledge.”
She meets one on one with every senior and their parents to talk about next steps in the application process and the importance of filling out the FAFSA. And then, during March Madness, she turns her attention more specifically to the shift_ed scholarship. She taps her email distribution list for students and their families, the principal includes it in his weekly message to families, and the fun begins.
“Each week when shift_ed sends out the email with the brackets, that’s the part that the students really love,” she said.
The ultimate winner is announced via email and social media. Walker said she coordinates with winning schools to set up the celebration: things like presenting a giant check to the schools counseling department and hosting a senior celebration.
Webster’s school ended up pairing the celebration with its graduation fest, complete with Kona Ice and a food truck.
"We really just had a nice celebration of all the hard work that the students had done,” she said. “By then the students already knew where they were accepted, so it was kind of like just a big party.”
The Early College at Guilford Class of 2025 along with Nicole Webster. Photo courtesy of shift_ed.
The competition ended April 7 this year. shift_ed went from 364 completed applications at the start of the competition to 1,289 completed applications. Compare that to the year before, where they got an increase of 264 applications over the same time span.”
The winning school was Ben L. Smith High School and the runner-up was The Middle College at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. shift_ed increased the donation to the counseling department to $2,500 for the winning school this year and the runner-up will also receive a token of appreciation for the school counselor.
Webster’s school got knocked out of the competition early. But regardless, the students and their families are the winners because they get to apply for an easy scholarship and ensure that they will get their FAFSA’s completed.
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Wondering how to get March Madness scholarship opportunities in your area? Look for local scholarships or community foundations to see if they want to partner.
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To learn more about shift_ed, go to www.shift-ed.org