August Spotlight:

Welcome back to school! We hope you have another fantastic year. To help you in your college access efforts, UCanGo2.org has created checklists for all students in grades K-12.

Items on these checklists will help students track their progress through each school year to encourage them to be college-ready when they’ve completed their senior year of high school.

A checklist is now available for the first year of college.

Distribute the College Freshman checklist to your graduating seniors in the spring semester. With everything on seniors’ to-do lists, this resource reminds them of the important tasks that shouldn’t be missed.

Checklists are also available for grades K-5.

All of our tools and resources have been updated in order to offer you the most accurate college access information available for the new school year. 

We plan to have these new publications available online by September 4. Be sure to visit UCanGo2.org to find these free resources to help students plan, prepare and pay for college.

We invite you to join us for the first of our new FAFSA webinars. We will share valuable information and provide resources on improving FAFSA completion with your students. As the new FAFSA graduation requirement goes into effect for your 2024-25 seniors, we hope you’ll find these monthly events to be beneficial.

The first webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 14, at 10 a.m. Topics of discussion will include the new FAFSA graduation requirement, the Oklahoma FAFSA Data Portal, and FAFSA FastTrack, which will encompass a series of events across the state aimed at helping seniors successfully complete their FAFSA applications.

College App Week (CAW) began in 2012, when the Oklahoma GEAR UP Program piloted the event in our state. The Oklahoma College Assistance Program joined the effort in 2014 to carry the CAW campaign statewide. This is our 11th year to sponsor this exciting week! The goal of CAW is to give every high school senior the opportunity to submit at least one college application online at school, with knowledgeable volunteers standing by.

Last year, 136 schools, libraries and tribal partners registered for College App Week. Over 3,000 high school seniors participated in CAW events statewide and submitted over 5,000 college applications. Applications were sent to colleges in 37 states and Washington, D.C.

This year, CAW is "officially" scheduled for the week of September 23-27. We realize this week may not fit into your school calendar, so we encourage schools to host their CAW during any week, September through November. The registration survey will give you the opportunity to tell us which week you have chosen for your event.

When your register your high school, library or community center for CAW, you will be sent free posters and an "I Applied" sticker for each of the seniors you expect to attend. Helpful resources for planning, hosting and following up after your event can be found at OKCollegeAppWeek.org.

Questions? Contact Letha Huddleston, lhuddleston@ocap.org.

Oklahoma’s mandatory FAFSA graduation requirement begins with your 2024-25 senior class. To easily view FAFSA completion data for your seniors, we encourage your school district to sign up for the Oklahoma FAFSA Data Portal (OK-FDP), a free tool provided by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Once your school is enrolled, you’ll be able to track the FAFSA completion status for each of your seniors. To learn more and sign up, visit https://okhighered.org/ok-fdp/.

The UCanGo2 Outreach Team is available to provide free presentations or Zoom webinars at your school, library or community center on college planning and the FAFSA! We can also share information about Oklahoma’s Promise, finding scholarships, and creating a StudentAid.gov account. To request a workshop: