For Colleges: Connect with YES
Each year, YES Prep students apply to colleges and universities across the United States. The YES Prep Class of 2021 submitted over 12,800 college applications to over 450 different colleges and universities.
YES Prep's mission is to empower all Houston students to succeed in college and to pursue lives of opportunity. We recognize that students attending universities that Match their credentials and are the right Fit are essential to us fulfilling our mission and promise to our students.
To promote students building well-Matched college lists and allow students and families to ensure a college is the right Fit for them, YES Prep sponsors opportunities for our students to engage with college and university admission officers directly:
Visit a YES Prep High School (In-Person or Online)
YES Prep Public Schools will be offering colleges the opportunity to schedule High School visits both in person and online this school year.
Last year to ensure all YES Prep Students, whether they were learning in person or online, had equal access to the colleges, YES Prep centralized our high school visits. by launching the YES Prep Online College Visit Series during Fall 2020. Over the course of the year YES Prep hosted college visits on a weekly basis, leading to over 3,300 contact cards generated with 100 colleges participating in our visit program.
This year we will continue to offer our online visit series, while also allowing colleges who are traveling again to begin visiting our secondary schools.
There are two opportunities to connect with YES Prep:
- Online College Visit Series
- Visit YES Prep
Online College Visit Series
YES Prep's Online College Visit Series allows you to speak with juniors and seniors from all 14 YES Prep Campuses through centralized, online visits will begin September 8, 2021 after Labor Day. There are two time periods you can sign up for:
- Wednesday & Thursdays 11:50 AM - 12:35 PM: colleges can sign-up for a virtual lunch visit, except testing days/holidays
- Tuesday and Wednesday Family Nights at 4:30 PM: colleges can sign-up for an evening visit with students and their families.
The content and format of your presentation is up to your college. If you want to host a general admission session, an alumni panel, or a presentation about a specific college/academic program, we are excited for students to engage with you.
Visit YES Prep
Through Visit YES Prep, College Admissions Counselors are able to schedule times to visit a YES Prep high school. Each YES Prep High School has its own availability based on their campus bell schedule.
All visits will begin after Labor Day - September 6, 2021.
When selecting "Visit YES Prep _______" on Microsoft Bookings you will be able to see the availability of visits for the campus for the coming weeks. Our campus are currently finalizing their fall availability and visit schedule will be posted by mid-August.
When visiting a YES Prep campus you are only able to interact with students from that one campus. However, if you provide permission we can record any presentation you give, and that presentation will be posted to a video catalog on Microsoft Stream where students from other campuses can learn about your college.
To register for a College Visit, click the button below to register on Microsoft Bookings:
FAQs
- What is process to participate in the Online College Visit Series?
- How do I register for a high school visit?
- How will I interact with students on online visits
- How do I receive contact card information I would normally collect?
- How can I share information with College Counselors, that I would normally share when visiting a high school?
- How can I engage students during my High School Visit
- I am concerned about the technological barrier to students participating. How will they participate?
What is process to participate in the Online College Visit Series?
YES Prep has a four part process to schedule a high school visit with YES Prep.
First, colleges will be asked to scheduled their visit at least one week in advance. At the moment we are scheduling for visits between September 8th and December.
Second, students will RSVP for sessions by filling out a digital contact card that will be shared with the colleges.
Third, admission officers will receive their calendar invite with a link to Microsoft Teams. A YES Prep College Counselor will be present on the call to moderate questions and answers, assist the representative with any technology issues, and capture notes to share with other College Counselors across the district.
Fourth, following the event you will get an attendance report with the contact cards, as well as a list of any unanswered questions, and the information of students who asked them, so you can continue connect with students.
How do I register for a high school visit?
Colleges can register for a high school visit using our Microsoft Bookings site. The same site will be used for both online visits and visiting a campus. Online visits will be clearly labeled, and on campus visits will be listed as "Visit YES Prep _______"
Colleges are asked to booked appointments in advance for adequate time to promote your visit to YES Prep students.
When scheduling, you will receive an initial confirmation from Outlook. Within 2 to 3 business days, you will receive further communication form a member of our team.
We will not be utilizing RepVisits as we are using Bookings as a centralized Sign Up System.
How will I interact with students on online visits
YES Prep Public Schools is using Microsoft Teams for College's High School Visits this fall. All YES Prep Students and families actively use Microsoft Teams currently as our LMS. By hosting you on Teams, we are lowering barriers to participation for our students, whether students are learning on campus or at home.
You will have a YES Prep College Counselor with you on the call. They will assist you in moderating the discussion, asking questions to you from the Q&A, and helping you if you have any technical issues.
The visits will be formatted as Teams Calls. These calls can be interactive, where students can raise their hands, turn on their camera, and ask questions.
If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft Teams, you can find out more on Microsoft's Teams Resource Page.
How do I receive contact card information I would normally collect?
For students to participate in the High School Visit, they will RSVP for the session in advance. The RSVP form will include most of the standard fields on university contact cards, including:
- Name
- Contact Information
- Current School Information
- High School Graduation Year / Entrance Term
- Demographics
- Majors/Academic Interest
You will receive this information as a ".CSV" file following your visit with an attendance report.
You may also share a university specific online form with students during your visit.
How can I share information with College Counselors, that I would normally share when visiting a high school?
We know that High School visits are about connecting with both students and College Counselors, due to their influential role in the students' college application process. To ensure you have the opportunity to connect with our College Counseling Staff, one YES Prep College Counselor will be your host during this process. This counselor will be your point of contact. They would be able to answer any questions you have about YES Prep in advance of the session or help you if you have any technical issues.
During the session, they will help moderate conversations and student Q&A while also capturing information for their fellow counselors. Each College Counselor will complete a visit report. This report will include any updates you share that are significant. These reports will be available to other college counselors who cannot join the call so that they can use the information for their professional development.
Additionally, if you opt into having your visit recorded, the playlist will be shared within our counselor community. This way, counselors can also review this information to grow their college knowledge and share it with students and families who did not attend the session when discussing their college lists.
How can I engage students during my High School Visit
YES Prep is excited about how virtual visits open up new possibilities for High School Visits. College and Universities have shared how they are changing their formats to make these programs engaging. Some possibilities are:
- Invite YES Prep Alumni at your University to do a panel during the presentation or Q&A portion.
- Having an admissions student ambassador serves as a co-presenter to include a student's voice.
- Offering a campus visit for a specific field of majors that your college is promoting enrollment in, and inviting a faculty member from that department to join you.
Additionally, when registering for your session, there is a space for you to share two-to-three sentences about your University or your session that we will use to advertise the campus visit.
I am concerned about the technological barrier to students participating. How will they participate?
YES Prep recognizes the technology barriers that can prevent access to educational programs, including campus visits. To close the gap to access, YES Prep is providing devices and/or WiFi to all students in grades K – 12 who need them, whether they're learning virtually or in-person. YES Prep has committed to a 1-to-1 laptop program for our students, so all YES Prep Students will have the equipment necessary to access the campus visits whether they are studying in-person at our schools or at home.
We are utilizing Microsoft Teams this fall as YES Prep's learning management system. By using the same environment for your high school visit, we are working to remove additional barriers for our students and families.
If you have any additional questions about College Visits, please contact William Keaton, Manager of Special Project for College Initiatives at william.keaton@yesprep.org.
YES Prep College Fair
The YES Prep College Fair was held, Thursday, October 14, 2021, 9 AM to 12 PM (Central Standard Time)
Each year 100% of Juniors and Seniors at YES Prep attend the YES Prep Annual College Fair, from all 14 of our Houston area high schools. We are excited to announce that this year YES Prep Public Schools will be partnering, once again, with StriveScan to host a virtual college fair this fall. As demonstrated this past year, StriveScan’s 6x6 Virtual College Fair format exposes students to a wide range of colleges in a lively and safe environment. We invite colleges and universities to attend our fair again this year on StriveStan:
YES Prep Annual College Fair
Thursday, October 14, 2021
9:00 AM - 11:45 AM
Central Time
- What makes YES Prep's College Fair special?
- Why StriveScan?
- What does a StriveScan College Fair look like?
- What is included with the registration fee?
What makes YES Prep's College Fair special?
YES Prep's College Fair allows the 3,000+ members of the YES Prep Junior and Senior Class to have the opportunity to engage with a variety of colleges. The College Fair is held during the school day, allowing 100% of our Junior and Senior Class to participate in the program.
Before coming to the fair, in students Junior and Senior Seminar courses, they were given the list of colleges, and determine which colleges they may be interested in learning more about as they develop and refine their college list. Our college counselors also meet with Seniors about which panels they plan to attend as they finalize their college lists.
Why StriveScan?
Last year, the YES Prep College Fair, powered by StriveScan, hosted 180 different colleges and universities and generated over 54,000 Contact Cards. Our panels averaged last year around 240 Juniors and Seniors per panel.
StriveScan scans panel format is a positive use for both College and Student time. The time commitment for your university is only 1 hour, meaning that representatives are waiting in virtual booths, ensuring you have great return on your time.
What does a StriveScan College Fair look like?
- After college registration closes, we will assign you to a group with 5 other institutions (total of 6 colleges per group). Your group’s session will be 45-minutes long, allowing for each institution to present for 6 minutes.
- You may have up to two representatives from your institution as panelists during the session. Some institutions may want to have one representative dedicated to answering questions in the chat.
- Throughout the entire 45 minutes, students will be able to ask questions via chat.
- There will be multiple concurrent group sessions happening each hour.
- Students will register through StriveScan for each group session they want to attend.
- All 6 institutions in the group will receive the StriveScan student data for all of the students who registered for your group’s session.
- Your total time commitment is approximately one hour.
- Sessions are hosted by StriveScan via Zoom Webinars (students will not be on camera).
- Learn more about StriveScan’s 6x6 virtual college fair format
What is included with the registration fee?
Once college registration closes, we publish the schedule and notify you of your hour-long time block and the other institutions you will be presenting with during your session.
- 45-minute session to answer student questions via chat
- 6 minutes during the session to present about your institution
- StriveScan student data on all students who register for your group’s session
- Up to two representatives from your institution
YES Prep Public Schools also have a college partnership program, the IMPACT Program. If you are interested in our partnership program, you can learn more here