College application day press conference (10/8)

When Cyndi Mosteller remembers the mother of a student working on her college application, she looks deep into the crowd.

“I remember a mother turning around, I was walking by, checking to see how everybody’s doing. She looked at me, she had tears in her eyes and she said, ‘I didn’t know that my child could go to college,’” said Mrs. Mosteller, one of several presenters at the 10th annual College Application Day held on Oct. 8.

For 10 years, the South Carolina Department of Education has been collaborating with the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education to give students equal opportunities when applying to college. High schools across the state will be hosting College Application days. The main goal of these events are to provide all high school seniors with a forum to complete college applications.

Ninety-three% of Wando graduates last year attended either a two or four-year college, beating the national average of 69.7% of high school students that attend college.

Joe Montgomery, a director for the College Board and who has done lots of work with the college application program says, “I got to witness students that were in very rural regions that didn’t think that they would have an opportunity for college.”

Student Body President, Lleyton Spivey said having a College Applications Day helps all students.

“This day gives students opportunities to meet with college admissions representatives that will help guide them through the process or even give them reassurance that they are on the right track,” he said.

Students are provided with resources that may improve their opportunity to attend college, including counselors available to help them file applications.

This idea for College Application Day began when Mrs. Mosteller’s daughter, Brooke Mosteller, who graduated from Wando in 2008, was going through the process of applying to college. It was when she had said, “Mom, if I’m having this trouble, how many hundreds of thousands of students across the state have this problem” that the idea for the program was born.

Brooke’s uncle, Sen. Chip Campsen, also attended the ceremony. Brooke was Miss South Carolina in 2013.

“A lot of contestants have world peace or something like that unattainable is their mission,” Campsen said. “But Brooke had College Application Day.”

These programs have also encouraged colleges to waive application fees during College Application Day, and ACT and the College Board has announced plans to give more scholarships.