What is the Detroit College Challenge?

The 2019-2020 Detroit College Challenge is a partnership between Get Schooled and the Detroit College Access Network (DCAN), supporting 24 Detroit area high schools focused on improving FAFSA completion and college-going rates. Schools encourage students to use Get Schooled’s site and textline to find resources and help for college applications and financial aid questions. Schools with the most active students and high FAFSA completion rates earn cash grants! 

Students start by creating a Get Schooled account and selecting their high school in their profile. Then they explore our Detroit-specific college and career readiness content to earn points for their school and be eligible for prizing themselves. Details of the Detroit College Challenge are below; the challenge ends April 3, 2020. The leaderboard is here.

Goals of the Challenge:

• Increase FAFSA completion rates in each participating school by at least 3%;
• Inform Detroit youth about the importance of post-secondary plans and securing college financial aid; and
• Give school staff a fun way to unify, engage, and motivate their students.

What Can Schools Earn?

• Schools earn $1 for every point on the leaderboard (starting at 300 points), up to 1,000 points or $1,000.
• The top school with the highest FAFSA increase rate from the previous year will earn an additional $1,000.
• Students active on the site and with Get Schooled's textline will be recognized weekly, with up to 10 students sent gift cards or swag based on a variety of engagement criteria
• Educators who motivate their students to engage with the College Challenge also have an opportunity to personally earn their own recognition in January, February and March ($50 gift cards)

What We Expect From Schools:

• We recommend having a day-to-day coordinator who is responsible for implementing the Challenge at their school. Each school coordinator should expect to spend 1-2 hours a week promoting the challenge .
• We encourage all participating schools to recruit Student Ambassadors to lead internal promotional efforts among their student peers.
• Ideas for rallying your students to engage with the College Challenge include: Using the fliers and posters from Get Schooled, school loud-speaker announcements, Student Ambassadors creating buzz around the Challenge, raffles to recognize students that have made the most gains toward Challenge goals, setting aside time in classrooms to complete Challenge activities, etc.