The College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) offers a week of free college applications to high school seniors for various colleges, both private and public, around the state, as a part of its college application month each November.
“The goal of college application month is to have every student apply to at least one college or more,” Chapel Hill High School counselor Julia Royal said.
While CFNC originally only offered a college application week, last year the nonprofit organization decided to expand on its idea of advocacy for college applications and create college application month. Free applications are only offered for one week in
November, but, during the other weeks of the month, CFNC offers help to students with other elements needed for applications, including Free Application for Federal Student Aid and residency determination.
“You can’t just show up one day and do a college application,” Royal said. “You need to do some prep for it.”
This year’s college application week, in which colleges such as Davidson and Warren Wilson College waive their application fees, took place from Novem-
ber 13-17.
In preparation for this week, all standard English 12 classes were required to create accounts on the CFNC website. Students in these classes were given time to work on their applications and submit them.
Senior Roxana Altamirano applied to four schools during college application week, including Western Carolina University and Campbell University. “I wish I had applied to more, but I ran out of time,” Altamirano said.
Senior Victor Breeze applied to both North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and North Carolina Central University during college application week. He will be the first person in his family to attend college.
“The process was straightforward,” Breeze said. “I would definitely recommend [taking advantage of college application week] to underclassmen.”
Some students in standard English 12, though, did not complete a free application in full. “Of those colleges [offering free applications], none were really ones I wanted to attend,” senior Chase Lopez said.
During college application week, the counseling office and Career Information Center (CIC) keeps its doors open during lunch to provide help to students who are filling out applications.
Many students who are not a part of a standard English 12 class, including senior Eric Ward, were not aware of college application week. “Maybe I would have filled out an application [if I had known about it],” Ward said.
While the 2017 college application week has ended, Royal still encourages seniors to apply. “There’s still time,” she said. “Many colleges’ deadlines aren’t
until January or February.”
