The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education recently launched the updated OKcollegestart.org, Oklahoma’s student information portal that provides students, parents, high school counselors and adult learners with comprehensive college planning and preparation information.
OKcollegestart.org, the state’s official college planning website, has been redesigned with a wider content display, simpler navigation, updated tools, and new resources specifically aligned with the user’s selected path and profile information. Additionally, the new Energy career cluster, developed in partnership with the Oklahoma Energy Workforce Consortium, has been fully integrated within the interactive features for students, parents and educators across the site.
“OKcollegestart.org provides students with a one-stop shop to plan, prepare and pay for college,” said Chancellor Glen D. Johnson. “The state of Oklahoma has made great strides to expand college access and facilitate the transition from secondary to postsecondary education. The enhancements to this website support our goal to continue increasing the number of college degrees and certificates earned in Oklahoma.”
Through the site, students can explore detailed information about the state’s campuses, build personal portfolios with their grades and applications, prepare for the ACT and SAT, learn about career opportunities and complete career assessments, access extensive information about federal and state financial aid, search for scholarships, and apply online for the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship. OKcollegestart.org includes information about both public and independent Oklahoma colleges and universities and is offered in more than 100 languages.
Counselors and parents can use the website to help students prepare for postsecondary education. Students can choose to give counselors access to their portfolios so they can review grades and applications together. A companion site for educators allows K-12 and higher education counselors and instructors to access and assign a system-defined Individual Career Academic Plan (ICAP) to specific grades, track students’ progress, and send and receive electronic transcripts to/from school to school, school to campus, and campus to campus.
More than 600,000 user accounts have been created on OKcollegestart.org since its launch in 2007. Page views exceed 28.4 million, and more than 102,000 students have applied online for the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship through OKcollegestart.org.