Dive Brief:
- At the College Board’s annual forum, panelists representing the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success tried to clarify their plans, but much of their work is still in progress.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Coalition members described the “virtual locker” as fully under a student’s control and a repository for projects throughout high school that he or she might never show to a college admissions officer, but some of which could be submitted as part of an application.
- One critic said the collaboration platform, meant to give students an opportunity to engage with mentors and learn networking skills, will actually leave many low-income and first-generation students out because they don’t have adults to help them plan for college.
Dive Insight:
High school counselors already have concerns that the virtual locker will turn into the next-generation, stress-inducing element of college applications. Parents will want their children to begin filling the portfolio with high-quality projects from day one of freshman year as a new form of competition dominates the admissions process. Panelists said even if students end up filling their virtual lockers with dozens of projects, no admissions team would request all of them or have the time to look through them if a student submitted them anyway.
In terms of the scarcity of mentors in low-income communities, that concern was simply acknowledged as a problem. Like many elements of the coalition’s plan, a solution will be a work in progress.