In 2018, College Board introduced the College Board Opportunity Scholarships (CBOS) program, which motivates students to complete critical college-going steps. After completing each step, students are entered into a scholarship
drawing. Students who complete all six steps are eligible for a $40,000 scholarship.
CBOS scholarship recipients represent a range of backgrounds: 71% are from lower-income households (annual income under $60K), 51% self-reported as being the first in their family to attend college, and 48% identify as Black or Hispanic.
After receiving student feedback and learnings from previous cohorts, College Board wanted to enhance the scholarship program by making it more seamless and less confusing for students. Thanks to this feedback, the following changes will take place for
the high school class of 2022 (current juniors).
1. There will be more winners and more winners identified earlier.
All steps will earn students a chance at a $500 scholarship. (Previously, scholarship amounts differed from step to step.) College Board will give away 1,000 scholarships per month for building a list of colleges as well as for SAT practice during the
months of January through March.
Why so many more scholarships earlier in the program? Early evidence shows that when students win scholarships early on, they are more likely to stay engaged in the college planning journey.
2. There’s a new step: Explore Scholarships.
This step replaces the Improve your Score step, which focused on SAT scores. Students will now become eligible for a $500 scholarship by exploring College Board’s recommended scholarships at scholarships.collegeboard.org.
Why this change? Students from last year expressed that they would be more likely to apply to other scholarships if they could receive more guidance around scholarship searching.
3. There’s a new requirement for the Practice for the SAT step.
The new requirement is for students to complete either a timed mini section or one diagnostic quiz on Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy.
Why this change? New findings released by the College Board and Khan Academy show that students who used best practice behaviors, like following personalized skill recommendations, have higher score gains.
So what should you encourage your students in the class of 2022 to do next? The answer to that is easy. Tell them to sign up, join the CBOS program, and take action to become eligible for scholarships. Enrollment for the
class of 2022 opened on Dec. 7.
There’s still time for current seniors (class of 2021) to sign up for the College Board Opportunity Scholarships program to take the Complete the FAFSA and Apply to College steps and become eligible for scholarships. The deadline is Feb. 28.
Educators, advisers, and other caring adults who assist students are highly encouraged to take the CBOS pledge. The pledge is simply a commitment to help connect students to the scholarship program.
Practitioners can also access free virtual resources to support students with each of the scholarship steps.
If you need a more thorough rundown of this scholarship program and how it works, you can watch the archived version of a webinar co-hosted by NCAN and the College Board here. As a reminder, in order
to access the webinar archives you must log in with your NCAN member credentials.
Questions? Please contact Deven Comen, director of strategic partnerships at dcomen@collegeboard.org.
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