With the current College Application Season, students typically use programs, such as Naviance, to guide them. Yet a new suitor has appeared! 

With the introduction of new student resources like GoingMerry and Overgrad, students are now given the opportunity to earn scholarships and discover colleges with even more guidance; but are they really helping students?

“It’s a numbers game,” explained Ms. Che, one of Edison’s college guidance counselors. Ms. Che talks about the rat race for undergraduate scholarships. Students have always faced the pressure of being able to maintain grades, search and write essays for college scholarships as their senior year dwindles down.

In the past, students needed to conduct their own research for applying to scholarships through online resources. At the forefront of college guidance, the college office made an effort to support students by implementing the GoingMerry’s scholarship portal in May of 2024.

Through the use of GoingMerry, there are many students around the school who have been able to use it to their advantage through their senior year. 

“Going Merry is obviously better because it lets you filter out what kind of scholarships you’re going to get. So, it gives you direct access to scholarship,” said Senior Amir Islam,  a QuestBridge recipient for Columbia University. 

The guidance that these websites provide, has given students greater access to opportunities that may have gone unnoticed. Many applications, such as GoingMerry, have the ability to differentiate and integrate student criteria that can open eligibility for specific scholarships.

Although the use of GoingMerry streamlined the scholarship application process, they also pose the risk of students missing the support that’s open to them, simply because they don’t know they have access to them. Many local and regional scholarships still go unnoticed for this reason.

“The most challenging part is actually students actually using those features. We post like going merry all the time, but the difficulty is like students applying,” College Counselor Ms. Minaya said.  In response, the college office are working to publicize these resources. The students that will help them achieve financial aid when it comes down to their post secondary expenses. 

While GoingMerry handles the student’s need for scholarships, Overgrad is slowly becoming the new “all-in-one” hub for Edison students. Mr. Jamieson, the AP of Guidance, says the school is phasing out Naviance for this more streamlined system. 

The goal is to keep “information all in one place as opposed to searching various different websites,” Mr. Jamieson said. Covering everything from career lists to financial aid, it’s also a game-changer for the staff. Jamieson noted that teachers and counselors now use the same platform to track data, making the jump to college much more organized.

The impact of these applications have had mixed reactions from students, and the majority of those coming from students who don’t even know they exist. 

 “For Going Merry, I haven’t used it, but I know that, I heard from other people that it’s about scholarships. And for Overgrad, I tested it out. It’s not that really accurate,” said Rishika Das, a senior in search of financial aid.

Despite Das’s ambition to pursue scholarships, she never knew that these websites would be available: especially for Overgrad being inaccurate for what schools she would be able to strategically apply.

Through this process, the college office strongly recommends that students be constantly on the lookout for the resources available to them at Edison. 

“I feel like I say this a lot, but just make sure you’re checking your emails, checking Google Classroom because there’s really a resource for everything these days,” Mrs. Minaya said.