SACAC’s Free Access Membership (FAM) welcomes public high school and community-based organization college access counselors and staff in the SACAC region to join at no cost. Any staff member supporting students and families with post-secondary college planning at a public high school in the SACAC region* that provides free education through public funds as well as professionals who work for a not-for-profit community-based organization 501(c)(3) in the SACAC region* that serves students and promotes or provides access to higher education qualify for complimentary Free Access Membership. (* = Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Caribbean).
As of May 2023, SACAC serves over 650 Free Access Members! Learn more and join here.
Counselor Resources
Application Platforms
- Common Application: students can use this application to apply to over 900 member colleges and universities including 19 HBCUs.
- Coalition Application: Students can use this application to apply to 150+ member colleges and universities. This platform boasts a Digital Locker where students, as early as the 9th-grade year, can store and organize materials that may be useful during the college application process. The University of Washington, Seattle, is the only school that requires students to use the Coalition Application exclusively.
- Common Black College Application: Students can use this application to apply to any of the 65+ member HBCUs for a single $20 application fee.
College Admission Testing
- FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing maintains a current list of more than 1850+test-optional/blind schools that do not require ACT/SAT from high school students.
- SAT Registration
- Free SAT Prep on Khan Academy
- ACT Registration
- Free ACT Prep
- TOEFL Testing – to demonstrate English language proficiency.
Financial Aid
- FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) The application for FAFSA opens on October 1 of the student’s senior year.
- CSS Profile – additional aid form required by some institutions.
- US Colleges that Meet 100% of Demonstrated Need this list also includes the institution’s loan policy.
- Net Price Calculator Net price calculators are available on every school’s website and allow prospective students to find out what students like them paid to attend the institution in the previous year, after taking grants and scholarship aid into account.
- Federal Student Aid Estimator provides an estimate of what federal student aid you may be eligible to receive.
- FastWeb (Scholarships)
- Finaid.org
Unique College Funding Opportunities
- Academic Common Market: Students study in a specialized field at an out-of-state college and pay in-state tuition rates. Participating SACAC states include AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, FL, and SC.
- Oglethorpe University’s Flagship 50 Scholarship: for qualifying students, Oglethorpe will match the in-state flagship tuition for all 50 states, including the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories
- University of Arkansas Non-resident Tuition Award: The NRTA scholarship covers the majority of the difference between out-of-state tuition and in-state tuition for qualifying students.