Get Ready, a college access initiative housed in the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, has been awarded a $31,150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Get Ready staff work with middle and high school students from low-income backgrounds and at-risk communities to ensure they have the support necessary to pursue higher education. The grant ensures Get Ready is able to continue serving Minnesotans for an additional seven years.

“Get Ready is a critical effort in our work to close attainment gaps in Minnesota,” said Minnesota Office of Higher Education Commissioner Dennis Olson. “No matter what path a student may choose: on-the-job training, a certificate, an associate’s, or bachelor’s degree; Get Ready staff are providing students with the support they need to thrive after high school. I want to thank the U.S. Department of Education for recognizing their incredible work with this grant.”

Federal Student Aid (FSA) launched beta testing for the new 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on October 1st. The process, which will roll out in four phases, allows FSA to trouble shoot issues with the new form and process. The public release of the 2025-26 FAFSA is expected on or before December 1st. 

College Possible Minnesota, a college access and success organization, was selected to participate in beta testing. They are the only location in Minnesota that will being working with students and families to submit FAFSA forms prior to the public release. 

Students and families are encouraged to review available resources to prepare for the 2025-25 FAFSA release later this year. FSA has a Federal Student Aid Estimator, which can be used to find out how much federal aid a student is likely to be eligible for. 

College students across Minnesota are in the early weeks of their academic year! 16,711 of them received the exciting news that their tuition and fees are covered by the North Star Promise. The program, which started this Fall 2024, provides a tuition and fee-free pathway for Minnesota residents with a family Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) below $80,000.

The Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) has extensive information available for those who want to learn more. We also have a toolkit that can be used to promote the program. 

To determine eligibility, students need to apply for financial aid by submitting a Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) or Minnesota Dream Act Application. 

October is College Knowledge Month! Throughout the month, OHE is hosting virtual information sessions to learn more about how to pay for college. Sessions are offered in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education and ECMC. 

Sign up to attend a Ready, Set, FAFSA! session or share this information with a prospective or current college student in your life. 

In addition to learning critical information about the resources available to make paying for college accessible for all, attendees can enter to win a $1,000 scholarship!

For the most recent program year of 2023-2024, OHE’s Direct Admissions program had 120 total high schools participate from 42 counties across the state.  The 120 participating high schools enrolled an estimated 22,505 students.  At participating schools, almost half of enrolled seniors (46%) identified as Black, Indigenous, and students of color, and over a third of enrolled seniors (35%) were eligible for free and reduced-price meals.  We ended the program year having 34,751 total requests for applications from 115 reporting high schools.  The program benefited 4,975 students, or about 22% of overall senior students in this year’s cohort.  On average, the median number of selections for students participating in Direct Admissions was four responses for proactive admission.  Of all students responding, 85% chose ten or less institutions to request proactive admission to, and 18% chose only one institution. 

For the current program year of 2024-2025, we have 184 participating high schools from 56 counties across the state, around 32,224+ seniors (45% of whom are students of color and 37% of whom are eligible for Free or Reduced Price Meals).  The majority of the program’s work is set to commence over the next two months, and we are already redistributing student data to their colleges of choice.

Lastly, and thanks to some Lumina funding secured by the agency, the program had a recent “show on the road”, a regional Counselor Convening in Rochester that hosted 41 counseling practitioners from a number of districts in the southcentral region of the state.  These counselor convenings will be happening in Bemidji and Duluth later on in October, where we hope to continue to amplify the promise of Direct Admissions while providing avenues for our college and career counselors to engage in professional development, networking, and college access dialogue