New transfer success initiative will reward students with financial aid awards for strong academic performance, and on-time degree completion from The College of Saint Rose, Concordia College New York, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Syracuse University via the micro-scholarship platform, Raise Me

Sept. 8, 2020 — Tri-state area community college students who intend to transfer and graduate from four-year institutions can now receive scholarship funding towards their Bachelor’s degrees from five new universities in New York state. These colleges, which include Rochester Institute of Technology, the College of Saint Rose, Syracuse University, Concordia College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have joined the “micro-scholarship” platform Raise Me, which enables colleges to award incremental, achievement-based scholarships to all community college students before and during their transfer process.

All community college students can join Raise Me for free to begin earning micro-scholarships for their progress in community college at any point before applying for four-year transfer. Raise Me micro-scholarships — which students can accrue for individual actions and achievements, such as earning course credits towards degree completion, attending advising sessions, work and family service, and more — represent the minimum guaranteed amount in scholarships that a student can expect to receive upon applying and being admitted to a four-year college.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome more New York universities onto Raise Me’s transfer platform. This new era in higher education has made it more important for institutions to offer financial aid transparency to students — especially those transferring from community college,” said Tara Zirkel, Community College Partnerships Lead at Raise Me. “Now, students enrolled at community colleges across the Eastern Seaboard will gain access to engagement and learning opportunities with four-year colleges that didn’t exist previously.”

Four-year colleges on Raise Me set up micro-scholarship programs to provide a clear roadmap and guided pathways intended to help students achieve their postsecondary goals. The goal of the program is to incentivize actions that are proven to lead to timely Associate’s degree completion, and eventually, successful four-year degree transfer.

In total, community college students who join Raise Me can earn between $7,000 and $30,000 towards their degree completion from the participating four-year colleges.

“Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is committed to transfer students and helping to guide them as they continue their pursuit of higher education.  To this end, we are thrilled to expand our partnership with Raise Me to support a seamless pathway to Rensselaer for transfer students across the country,” said RPI’s Vice President of Enrollment Management Jonathan Wexler.

Rewarding transfer progress with incremental micro-scholarships

Raise Me’s micro-scholarship program is designed to reward achievements and tasks that prepare students to be successful transfer candidates, while simultaneously providing a preview into financial aid available from four-year colleges for transfer students. Some examples of achievements that students are eligible to earn micro-scholarships for include:

• Up to $150 for each A in any course (up to $1,500 maximum)
• Up to $400 for enrolling in a full-time course load (up to 12 credit hours)
• $100 for participating in a virtual transfer information session or scheduling a virtual admissions counselor chat
• Up to $1,000 for receiving Phi Theta Kappa or Alpha Beta Gamma honors
• Up to $200 for making progress towards an Associate’s degree

Students can begin to earn Raise Me micro-scholarships from colleges as early as the first semester of their Associate’s degree — money that represents a guaranteed minimum in financial aid that they would receive upon applying and being accepted to a school.

A broader push to address community college student success

This new offering is a part of a broader movement among 2-year and 4-year universities across the nation to provide additional resources to students in supporting their transfer pathways and their student success. Since 2018, more than 60 colleges and universities have established micro-scholarship programs serving over 50,000 community college students hoping to transfer to four-year colleges across the country. Raise Me’s micro-scholarship program for high school students, in turn, has served more than 2.5 million students across the nation in earning micro-scholarships towards over 330 colleges and universities.

“Our partnership with Raise Me helps support our goal to provide students with a seamless transfer experience, helping them stay on track academically and leverage important scholarship opportunities. We’re excited to work with Raise Me to engage and interact with transfer students sooner in their decision-making process and help them become successful students at Saint Rose,” said Katie Lesko, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions at the College of Saint Rose.

Students to earn Raise Me micro-schoolarships foor attending Northeast Virtual Transfer Fair

To learn more about earning Raise Me micro-scholarships in community college and transferring to a New York area university, all students, parents, and educators are invited to attend Raise Me’s New York Virtual Transfer College Fair on September 23-29, 2020. Students wishing to attend the event will earn a virtual college event micro-scholarship from each participating university for their attendance.

For more information or to sign up for the Northeast Virtual Transfer College Fair on September 23-29, visit https://bit.ly/RMFallVirtualFair

About Raise Me

Raise Me is on a mission to expand access to higher education by transforming the way billions of dollars in college scholarships are distributed each year. Raise Me enables students to earn incremental performance-based scholarships directly from colleges throughout the high school, community college transfer, and undergraduate student journey.  Whether it’s getting good grades, volunteering in the community, or leading a club, students on Raise Me receive scholarships based on their unique skills and progress on their path to and through college. Since launching in the fall of 2014, students in over 30,000 high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions across America have earned over $6 billion in scholarships from 330+ colleges. Raise Me is owned and operated by CampusLogic, Inc. Learn more at www.raise.me.