Arkansas high school seniors will soon have the opportunity to apply to up to five colleges for free through a new program announced by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The initiative, set to begin in October, aims to remove financial barriers for students exploring higher education options.
Students can begin building their ACCESS portal profiles immediately, but applications cannot be submitted until the program officially starts on October 1. At that time, seniors will have the ability to use their free applications at any point during the college admissions process.
Breta Dean, a counselor at Greene County Tech High School in Paragould, described the program as a significant step for many Arkansas students. "We have a lot of students who may want to apply to different colleges, but having to pay for it may be a trouble for them," Dean explained. "So this allows them to be able to go and apply to up to five colleges without having to pay for it. So that’s tremendous."
In addition to applications, the portal offers resources for researching degree programs. Dean highlighted this feature as a valuable tool for students exploring career paths. "In this portal, I noticed it has it where students can actually research and they can pull up maybe what degree or what they’re interested in doing, and it’s going to pull up every college and tell them what college offers it, what the degree is that offers it," Dean said.
The system is designed to simplify the application process by automatically loading students' academic information, such as grades, GPAs, and test scores. This streamlining could further alleviate administrative hurdles for applicants.
Students can create their ACCESS profiles now to prepare for the October launch of the program.