Variety Staffer Emma Ramsay demos her own “RaiseMe” account to showcase the features of the app. The app allows students to gain a comprehensive view of different scholarships and micro-scholarships available to them. Screenshots by Emma Ramsay.
“RaiseMe”, an app released on Aug. 23, offers a wide range of scholarships to students wanting to attend college.
With the new app “RaiseMe”, high school students can easily attain scholarships from a variety of colleges.
Upon opening the app for the first time, users are asked a series of basic questions such as their name, where they live, what high school they attend and what grade they are currently in. After gathering this information, users can begin inserting their grades and test scores from previous grades in high school. What makes “RaiseMe” so helpful is that it automatically gathers a list of scholarships students are eligible for, while one usually does this manually.
In addition to grades and test scores, “RaiseMe” allows users to input their previous work experience, community service, extracurriculars, honors, awards and college events users have attended.
These scholarships are called “micro-scholarships”, which are small amounts of money students have earned through final grades in classes or other activities. When users begin to earn scholarship money, they can click on a desired college and view the requirements of the school, as well as things they can do to earn more scholarship money. If accepted to the college, the scholarship money is automatically included in students financial aid package.
However, one of the downfalls of the app is that you are earning scholarships to individual schools. This is also problematic because some bigger schools such as New York University or Clemson University do not currently offer micro-scholarships. There are a wide range of smaller colleges that offer these scholarships, but the scholarships may not apply to a user’s desired college.
While “RaiseMe” does not offer micro-scholarships for larger schools, it is highly functionable, and quite helpful for high school students planning to attend college. The overall design is very easy to understand, making finding what one needs a simple task.
While “RaiseMe” should work to expand the schools offered, it is a good way to attain financial aid to schools that are accepting micro-scholarships as well as helping students plan for the future they want.
