January 2008 GAcollege411 Highlights GAcollege411 news: 2008 is off to a great start! January 2008 had the highest amount of application submissions through the site, with almost 19,000 applications sent to Georgia colleges and universities. Students may now apply to Paine College through the GAcollege411 site. Transcript news: The HOPE progress report function is now fully accessible on the GAcollege411 website. Once uploaded, underclassmen are able to access their HOPE progress GPA through their My 411 accounts. These reports will only be available for a limited time each year, and will only be available if the transcripts for the underclassmen are uploaded for calculation. Seniors are still able to access their HOPE GPA reports as well. Students should sign into their accounts and access `My Financial Aid' in their accounts. Printable directions can be found under Latest News and Announcements. Enhancements to the GAcollege411 website Student survey: We plan to launch our student survey in late Winter to get our students "411" on the site. We will use their feedback to further enhance the look and functionality of the site. Why go to college?: Look for our new version of `Why go to college' to launch in March. Thanks to Faye Duzan of the Georgia Department of Labor for the use of the information from Education Rocks! The new page is more engaging, and will show students the dollars and sense on how postsecondary education will increase their lifelong earning potential. Meet our new VP: I am pleased to be a part of the GAcollege411 project! Since its launch three years ago, I have watched, from the college perspective, the development of GAcollege411 and became quite excited at the opportunities which this site will make possible to Georgia's students as they plan, apply, and pay for college! Our most current projects include the electronic transcript exchange from high school to college. Colleges are quite excited at the opportunity to receive electronic transcripts from the high schools. To date, approximately 20% of the high schools are utilizing this feature. We would like for this participation to increase. If your school or school system has not yet participated in the electronic transcript project with the colleges and you would like training on this feature, please contact us at TrEx@gsfc.org. Linked to the transcript exchange project is the HOPE Progress Report feature for all high school students, including those in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades. We look forward to this feature providing an opportunity for students, parents, and advisors to keep students on-track toward the HOPE scholarship as early as their 9th grade year. For this feature to work, schools and school systems must submit transcript data on all their high school students, not just the seniors. The process is similar as it is for the Preliminary HOPE update; it just requires expanding the selection of students to include the underclassmen. If you need assistance on this type of data submission in order to enable the HOPE Progress Report for your students, please contact us at TrEx@gsfc.org. I am looking forward to working with each of you! Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! Philip Hawkins Vice President, GAcollege411 34,049 34,223 35,799 36,126 34,431 January 2008 Account Creations Jan 07 vs Jan 08 Account Creations, FY08 14,000 40,000 12,000 35,000 25,058 24,278 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 Jan 07= 33,912 Jan 08= 34,431 30,000 25,000 20,000 2,000 15,000 0 7th & 8th Gr9atdheGr1a0dteh Gr1a1dthe Gr1aC2dotehlleGgCreaodFlleeregsehSmoapCnhoolmlegoerCeoJullenGCgioroearudSnuesanetieloorrS, tPuadreenntt, Othe 10,000 5,000 0 Jul 07 Aug 07 Sep 07 Oct 07 Nov 07 Dec 07 Jan 08 Applications Submitted through GAcollege411 18,000 16,000 Total Submissions for this timeframe 14,000 12,000 USG College & Universities - 37,486 10,000 8,000 Dept. of Technical & Adult Education Colleges - 5,698 6,000 4,000 Independent Colleges & Univ - 1,678 2,000 0 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Applications FY07 vs. FY08 20,000 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 - JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FY07 = 54,376 FY08 = 84,536