Article in the Star about Bright Flight

Here's the original link, as long as it stays up.

Outside-the-box options are plentiful for the college-bound
Sunday, November 9th, 2008.  Kansas City Star

Options. That’s what high school seniors and their parents should be considering this time of year.

They peruse college applications, each of which costs money, and then start reaching for calculators to see how the costs will add up. With all that paperwork and decision-making ahead of them, students and parents sometimes can forget that they have options. One of those options is Missouri’s Bright Flight program.

What is Bright Flight?

It is a scholarship program that gives an $8,000, four-year ($2,000/year) scholarship to any Missouri resident who meets certain requirements and wants to attend a Missouri college. The hope is that these talented students will further their education in-state, simultaneously encouraging them to stay to build their lives and careers.

The current requirement is a 31 ACT composite score. A student can qualify using SAT scores, but the requirements of a reading score of 780 and a math score of 790 are far steeper than the 31.

The program is automated and does not have an application process. As long as a student meets the score published by the Missouri Department of Higher Education in his/her senior year, is a Missouri resident and will attend a Missouri college, the student will automatically get the scholarship. (Kansas does not offer a similar program.)

Some universities have also stepped up their financial aid packages to draw students away from out-of-state schools. For example, Missouri State University in Springfield offers in-state tuition to any student who meets at least one of these requirements: top 20 percent of class rank, 3.70 GPA or a 24 ACT composite.

A resource that many neglect to investigate or do not know about is www.fairtest.org. For many years, this organization has been scrutinizing and deconstructing the uselessness of the ACT and SAT in predicting college success.

Not satisfied with simply being a bullhorn for change, it has managed to compile a list of nearly 800 schools that do not use the ACT or the SAT as a part of their admissions process. The list already included the Art Institute of Chicago, Bowdoin College and Holy Cross before it added Wake Forest University earlier this year.

Now, the schools that don’t require these tests are not necessarily cakewalks as far as admissions. It just means that your student is going to get a chance to showcase other strengths besides the ability to do well on an arbitrary and meaningless test.

Knowing that these and other options are out there should spark further conversations about outside-the-box possibilities and make those stacks of college applications come into focus as opportunities. At the very least, it’s an opportunity to be moneywise — an excellent lesson for the soon-to-be freshman.

Stephen Heiner is the founder of Get Smarter Prep, a Kansas City area test-preparation company.