{"id":170142,"date":"2016-07-01T09:29:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T13:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=170142"},"modified":"2016-10-13T14:25:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T18:25:32","slug":"university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/","title":{"rendered":"University offers rewarding path to financial aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paula Guerra \u201920 says she was \u201cterrified\u201d when she started applying to colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the amount of money tuition was,\u201d she says. \u201cBut getting help from Raise.me<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>really helped. It all adds up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Douglas, Arizona native will enter Rochester this fall as a biochemistry major, and with $3,900 per year taken off her tuition through Raise.me, an online platform that offers \u201cmicro scholarships” to college-bound high school students based on school and personal achievements.<\/p>\n

Rochester was one of ten \u201cInnovation Partners\u201d when the company was founded in 2014, and now more than 150 colleges participate.<\/p>\n

Guerra cut her tuition costs by taking Advanced Placement courses, organizing a walkathon to raise money for cancer patients, and tutoring young students in math and English.<\/div>\n

Record an \u2018A\u2019? Start a club? Volunteer in the community or visit a college campus? All could net a student hundreds (or thousands) of dollars, which are deducted from tuition costs over four years.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Burdick, dean of College admission, was immediately drawn to Raise.me after meeting founders Preston Silverman, George Kirkland, and Dave Schuman at a higher education conference two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern was that students in eighth and ninth grade get plenty of financial messages about the wealth celebrities earn, but the more complicated message of going to college on the way to earning a great living incorporates this huge barrier of perceived college costs,\u201d Burdick says. \u201cThe Raise.me idea promised a different message: \u2018You\u2019ve already done some things that have earned you scholarship dollars, so the costs are already coming down. Stay in school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerra cut her tuition costs by taking Advanced Placement courses, organizing a walkathon to raise money for cancer patients, and tutoring young students in math and English.<\/p>\n

Nate Leopold \u201920 discovered Raise.me on the University\u2019s website and was excited to cut his tuition costs by logging his participation in elite soccer programs, his top grades in honors classes, and his work with community service groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t do these things to get money on Raise.me,\u201d says Leopold, an Atlanta native who plans to major in international relations and play on the men\u2019s soccer team. \u201cBut it\u2019s instant gratification to plug in your SAT score or your community service and see money coming in. A dollar saved for my parents is a dollar saved for my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jon
Jonathan Burdick. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s how Raise.me works:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students follow colleges that interest them on the platform\u2019s website, similar to following a person on Twitter. They add their achievements and can retroactively input grades, activities, and honors since their freshman year.<\/p>\n

For each achievement, a student earns a \u201cmicro scholarship\u201d ranging from a few hundred dollars to $1,500. These can be redeemed at a participating college when the student enrolls. If a student\u2019s total earnings are $32,000 at the end of high school, for example, that student receives $8,000 off tuition for four years. The average for participating colleges is $5,000 per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy making the process more transparent, tangible, and motivating for students, we can expand the pool of college-ready students across the country and level the playing field for students from less resourced communities,\u201d says Aneesh Raman, vice president of growth at Raise.me.<\/p>\n

Amassing scholarship points from a college doesn\u2019t constitute an offer of admission. But if students are accepted, they receive the Raise.me credits along with any federal or state grants for which they are eligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many contexts, it could almost be compared to a social media platform, because students have access to the University portfolio,\u201d says Karime Naime, Rochester\u2019s associate director for recruitment and outreach initiatives for undergraduates. \u201cThey can see what type of University we are, what students come here. And once they start following us, they start earning our micro scholarships.\u201d<\/p>\n

All activities are self-reported by the students, but if discrepancies are found, students forfeit all Raise.me scholarship money.<\/p>\n

Instead of receiving financial aid at the end of high school, which is often too late to affect students\u2019 college aspirations or choices, Raise.me enables students to chip away at future tuition costs as early as their freshman year of high school.<\/p>\n

Raise.me was founded by friends Preston Silverman, George Kirkland, and Dave Schuman. The San Francisco\u2013based company is funded in part by Facebook and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and charges participating colleges an annual fee to build and manage their micro scholarship program. It has been profiled on CNN, CBS and NPR, and in the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ 320,000 high school students (grades 9-12) have signed up on the program\u2019s Web site, and 30,000 follow Rochester\u2014up from 1,400 two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s grown immensely since we were an inaugural partner,\u201d says Scott Clyde, executive director of College enrollment. \u201cIt\u2019s a road map, a path to success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naime says five students from Raise.me enrolled in the University the first year. That number is expected to approach 30 this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I pitched this to a bunch of counselors in New York City, they loved the fact that their younger students could see in ninth grade that college was possible,\u201d says Joe Latimer, the\u00a0 College\u2019s assistant dean for enrollment diversity and outreach. \u201cThat with hard work and dedication, they can get to college. The money situation will take care of itself as long as they behave in certain ways that colleges admire. I think it\u2019s just terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rochester was one of ten \u201cInnovation Partners\u201d in a new micro-scholarship platform called Raise.me, which allows high school students to bank money toward tuition costs when then record good grades, start a club, or volunteer in their community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":170322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27392,18612],"class_list":["post-170142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-administration-and-finance","tag-announcements"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUniversity offers rewarding path to financial aid<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"University offers rewarding path to financial aid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rochester was one of ten \u201cInnovation Partners\u201d in a new micro-scholarship platform called Raise.me, which allows high school students to bank money toward tuition costs when then record good grades, start a club, or volunteer in their community.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-01T13:29:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-13T18:25:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/fea-college-savings.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Mandelaro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Mandelaro\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim Mandelaro\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124\"},\"headline\":\"University offers rewarding path to financial aid\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-01T13:29:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-13T18:25:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":927,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/fea-college-savings.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Administration and Finance\",\"announcements\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Campus & Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/\",\"name\":\"University offers rewarding path to financial aid\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/fea-college-savings.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-01T13:29:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-13T18:25:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/fea-college-savings.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/fea-college-savings.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"(CC BY 2.0 photo \\\/ Flickr user TaxCredits.net)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"University offers rewarding path to financial aid\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\",\"name\":\"News Center\",\"description\":\"Ä¢¹½´«Ã½\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124\",\"name\":\"Jim Mandelaro\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/author\\\/jmandelaro\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"University offers rewarding path to financial aid","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"University offers rewarding path to financial aid","og_description":"Rochester was one of ten \u201cInnovation Partners\u201d in a new micro-scholarship platform called Raise.me, which allows high school students to bank money toward tuition costs when then record good grades, start a club, or volunteer in their community.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/","og_site_name":"News Center","article_published_time":"2016-07-01T13:29:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-13T18:25:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/fea-college-savings.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jim Mandelaro","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim Mandelaro","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim Mandelaro","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124"},"headline":"University offers rewarding path to financial aid","datePublished":"2016-07-01T13:29:31+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-13T18:25:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/"},"wordCount":927,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/fea-college-savings.jpg","keywords":["Administration and Finance","announcements"],"articleSection":["Campus & Community"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/","name":"University offers rewarding path to financial aid","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/fea-college-savings.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-01T13:29:31+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-13T18:25:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/fea-college-savings.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/fea-college-savings.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"caption":"(CC BY 2.0 photo \/ Flickr user TaxCredits.net)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/university-offers-rewarding-path-financial-aid-170142\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"University offers rewarding path to financial aid"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/","name":"News Center","description":"Ä¢¹½´«Ã½","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124","name":"Jim Mandelaro","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/author\/jmandelaro\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/672"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170142"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170472,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170142\/revisions\/170472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}