Written by: Mike Senecal
Edited by: Lillian Guevara-Castro
Reviewed by: Jon McDonald
In a Nutshell: When it comes to college financial planning, it pays to get students involved early. Raise Me helps families with students as young as ninth grade explore their options and take action. Micro-scholarships from Raise Me can help students and families shave tens of thousands off college costs in return for making good grades, volunteering, and participating in clubs and sports during high school.
I didn’t think about the money part of going to college when I searched for schools as a 17-year-old. I took for granted that my parents would handle the costs, which they were inclined to do because we all bought into the same middle-class stereotype.
Then life happened, and it turned out I was clueless. I changed my major several times as a first- and second-year student and dropped out after four semesters to clear my head and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
My parents were less than thrilled. They felt I had squandered my opportunity by refusing to buckle down and concentrate on a course of study. I was on my own when I eventually decided to return to school.
Decades later, I find myself writing about Raise Me, a college discovery and financial planning tool that I wish existed when I was a high schooler. Using Raise Me might have led me to appreciate my parents’ gift enough to generate a positive return on their investment.
The funny thing is that helping aimless students gain direction isn’t even Raise Me’s most significant contribution — as necessary as that is. The best part is that it broadens college access for students who can’t take the money part for granted because they don’t know where the money’s coming from.
Raise Me has partnered with more than 300 American colleges and universities to offer micro-scholarships for excellent academic performance, school participation, and community involvement. It works by breaking academic-year scholarship awards into individual financial achievements.
Instead of waiting until the end of their high school career to learn the monetary value of their accomplishments, students who use Raise Me get a boost every time they do something positive. They can start as early as ninth grade.
“The earlier you get involved, the better your chances are because you can connect the dots between performance and reward,” said Ross Sylvester, Director of Product at Ellucian, the higher education software and services company that acquired the Raise Me platform in 2022. “Adding your achievements to Raise Me gives you an immediate understanding of how they increase your college package.”
Earn Scholarships Throughout High School
Ellucian is the leading global higher education technology solutions provider with a portfolio of products that include enterprise resource planning and student information system platforms. It’s an ideal owner for Raise Me because its software and services power colleges and universities across the student life cycle.
“Ellucian helps solve problems from the financial aid office all the way to the university president,” Ross said. “We even have software and services to help alums fund scholarships through philanthropic giving.”
With Raise Me, Ellucian reaches out not just to families with students who are just beginning to think seriously about attending college but to nontraditional and international students with the same goals. Its college and university partners include some of the big names in U.S. higher education, including Northeastern, Penn State, Tulane, Western Governors University, New York Institute of Technology, and Florida International University.
In a ritual repeated annually, guidance counselors in U.S. schools nationwide recommend Raise Me to new high schoolers. Students from more than 19,000 high schools are on the platform. More than 3 million have used it.
Those diligent young performers earn an average of $5,000 in annual assistance to attend one of the institutions partnering with the platform. College and university partners create individual awards structures that align with their admissions goals.
For example, one college might offer $50 for an A in Algebra, while another might offer $300. Students can follow colleges to learn about their micro-scholarships. Conversely, by entering achievements through the platform’s easy-to-use pulldown menus, students can unearth institutions they may not have considered.
Like me, Ross feels a tinge of regret that Raise Me wasn’t available to him as he planned his higher education journey. He said it might have helped him set his sights beyond the flagship school in his home state — as positive as that experience turned out to be.
“I wish I understood my options earlier — it might have changed the course of my future,” Ross said. “The reality is a lot of students don’t have that information. No matter what you decide to do in life, it’s always better to have good data.”
Engage With High-Value Colleges and Universities
Colleges and universities partner with Raise Me because they compete to admit the best students just as students compete to attend the best schools. Presenting a well-rounded micro-scholarship strategy through Raise Me helps institutions cut through the clutter and direct a clear marketing message to interested buyers.
That’s what makes the platform’s discovery tools so attractive as promoters of financial inclusion. It’s prudent to consider the cost of attending the college of your choice.
Likewise, parents contemplating cosigning student loans while struggling with bad credit and students seeking self-funding with a thin credit history and low credit scores are correct to seek as much scholarship support as possible. Knowing what’s available can even help students decide on a course of study or a school to attend.
“A lot of micro-scholarships equals one big scholarship,” Ross said. “Our partners are saying, ‘This is who we are, and this is who we’re looking for.'”
It’s essential to note that these awards aren’t money in the bank. Raise Me matches student achievements with micro-scholarship offers from schools students follow.
When a student chooses and wins admission to an institution partnering with Raise Me, the student’s financial aid offer letter from that school will meet or exceed their Raise Me earnings.
It’s part of what Raise Me considers the student pathway to higher education. Money is a great motivator, no matter your age. Raise Me helps students and parents keep their eyes on the prize as they work together to build a better mutual future.
“The Student Voice Report,” a recent national student survey by Ellucian, underscores that point. Among more than 1,500 student respondents, 76% reported that their financial aid award impacted where they chose to attend school. Nearly half (44%) said just $5,000 more in scholarship assistance would be enough for them to switch their top choice.
“A lot of universities want to find the kids thinking about their future as 9th graders,” Ross said. “They’re the ones who are going to get in, perform well, and may eventually give the next major gift.”
Students Get Credit for Hard Work and Reap the Rewards
Total federal and private student loan debt stands at $1.59 trillion, according to the most recent Federal Reserve report. There’s clearly a disconnect between college costs and the ability to pay out of pocket.
Meanwhile, web articles abound with reports of millions — if not hundreds of millions — of unclaimed scholarship dollars annually. Taking advantage of that windfall is often a mere matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Raise Me helps with that by matching students with relevant offers and changing the conversation around college expenses. Students and parents use Raise Me to ground themselves in the reality that college is an investment and that a cost-benefit analysis can support decision-making.
Raise Me does its part by supporting students across their entire educational and social journey. Although many micro-scholarships reward academic performance, others reward sports participation. All told, Raise Me accommodates hundreds of earning options.
“We think of our users not as students but as citizens,” Ross said.
What that means for financially beleaguered parents and students is a chance to level the playing field. Ross said Raise Me’s value comes in changing students’ futures. When documenting a GPA achievement or volunteer hours results in an explicit cash offer, it’s easy to understand how that happens.
Raise Me’s iOS app is a hit with students, and its new Android companion promises more of the same. I like to think I would have been among those enjoying Raise Me’s gamification of college financial planning.
Who knows what would have changed as a result? It’s an understatement to assert that college is a growing experience. There’s talk of increasing skepticism about higher education among today’s students and at least a slight shift toward trade schools and vocational pathways.
But the traditional liberal arts education isn’t going away. If anything, it’s just getting more and more expensive. Download the app if you’re a parent anticipating a huge college outlay or a student wondering how to make it all work. Or high schoolers and parents can follow Raise Me on TikTok or Instagram to better stay in the loop.
“We motivate students to maximize their earnings,” Ross said. “When they go to school, they see how the dollars they worked toward translate to better prospects.”
