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October 2025
Happy Fall, all! It has been wonderful to see hundreds of students, families, and practitioners attending all of the MN Goes to College virtual events this month. Thank you to everyone who has attended or promoted our events.
The FAFSA Tracker is going live the week of November 3rd! This incredible tool, managed by the MN Office of Higher Education (OHE), allows high school counselors to track the FAFSA process for individual students at your school. Each high school is invited to enter into a Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) with OHE, which allows us to share private student data with approved staff at the school. From there, staff are able to view who has submitted a FAFSA, whether it is in-progress or complete, and if a FAFSA was selected for verification.
Please visit the OHE website to learn more and to initiate the DSA process so you can being using the tool at your school soon.
Shout out to everyone who has ordered our annual publications so far this year. Due to the popularity we have already placed an order to restock, which will be available for order soon! It is wonderful to know that students and families across our state are gaining access to this important information thanks to all of the great advocates like you.
In additional to print versions, the digital versions are available, and translated PDFs in Spanish, Hmong, and Somali are also available now.
We welcome you to place an order free of charge. If you have not registered an account with us yet, please review the options below to determine which steps you should follow.
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High School ordering site: MOST high schools should use this link. The exception is schools that participate in the Direct Admissions Program.
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Partner ordering site: ALL college, universities, community based organizations, governmental organizations, and other community partners should use this link. Also, any high school that participates in the Direct Admissions Program should use this link.
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Individual copies: If you are a community member who just wants to order an individual copy of one or multiple OHE publications, please use this link. This is a great link to share with students and families!
If you have questions or issues, please reach out to OHE's Outreach and Communications Coordinator and MN Goes to College Co-Chair Libby Fahrenkamp at libby.fahrenkamp@state.mn.us.
The College Planning Series is underway, and we have been seeing great crowds so far. All of the past session recordings and materials are available on our website, and folks can still sign up to join us for the remaining sessions this fall. Any student who attends or watches a recording can still enter the drawing for one of the 2 - $1,000 scholarships sponsored by ECMC.
All virtual sessions include live interpretation in Spanish, Hmong, and Somali.
In the spring, we will have sessions about the following topics, so watch for updates about the launch of our social media toolkit and registration link for the spring dates:
- Earning college credit in high school
- Transfer student planning
- FAFSA and MN Dream Act
- Understanding aid offer letters
- Key conversations to have before college starts
We want students and families to have all the necessary information before making decisions around paying for college. For many, private loans are part of the plan. We want to remind you of the SELF Loan, administered by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. This state-backed loan program offers long-term, low-interest loans to Minnesota residents attending eligible institutions and to nonresidents attending eligible schools in Minnesota. Currently, more than 80 Minnesota schools and over 300 out-of-state institutions participate in the SELF Loan program.
There are many benefits of the SELF Loan, including:
- Flexible borrowing amounts
- Fixed or variable rate options
- Transparent interest rates you know before applying
- The same rates for all borrowers
- Access to SELF Success Coaching
To learn more, please visit the SELF Loan website.
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