1. applicant details

General information— you name, contact details, demographics, and high school. We also ask for contact info for someone who works at your school and someone in your family/community who you can talk about college with, so we can keep you informed about upcoming opportunities, updates, and missing application materials.

2. Activities

A good way to think about the activities section is to think about all of the things you do except homework, sleeping, and eating (unless you prepare the meals for your family). Do you play sports? Are you part of a club? Do you have family or cultural responsibilities? Take care of family members or work at a job? Anything that you do with your time that shows the ROCA selection committee who you are and what you care about is a great thing to list on your activities section. You can list up to 10 commitments, including as many of these that take up your time:

• volunteer and community service (with your school, club, or on your own)

• paid jobs or unpaid family obligations (e.g. caring for siblings, mending fences, feeding/caring for livestock, driving family members to appointments, translating documents for parents, fixing appliances or vehicles)

• cultural and ceremonial activities

• religious commitments and/or leadership

• athletic involvement, hobbies, clubs, hunting/fishing, other things you do for fun

We also placed these resources directly on the application to help, but click here to review a list to jog your memory of what you do, or watch this 4-minute priming video.

2. SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Sometimes college applications require quick responses to simple personality questions. We ask applicants to answer 4 short answer questions, and most are limited to just a couple of sentences or less. The length for each response is specified on the application.

1. Something that excites you to learn or think about

2. Some character traits that others appreciate about you

3. An example of how you demonstrate one of those traits

4. A strength or quality people might not always notice about you

We suggest you compose your answers in a Google Doc or word processor, then cut and paste.

3. Essays

We want to know your story, and we’re excited to help you craft your narrative for college applications. We suggest you compose your answers in a Google Doc or word processor, then cut and paste. Proofreading and spellcheck are always good ideas, and you might think of having a teacher or trusted friend review your responses before you submit.

1. Whether you ultimately go out of state or stay more local, transitioning to college will be challenging and different from your high school experience. Tell us about a time when you felt outside of your comfort zone. How did this experience help you change or grow? (200 words)

2. You will take your sense of place/home/culture with you to college, wherever you go. Where are you from, and how has that influenced who you are today? (200 words)

4. Transcript

You will need to submit an unofficial copy of your transcript that includes your high school grades through the first semester of your junior year.

5. Guardian questionnaire

Part of the application will be completed by a parent or guardian via the Guardian Questionnaire. You will need to provide an email address for a parent or guardian who can complete a form as part of your application. Below are some common questions about this section:

• What if my parent/guardian’s primary language is not English?

  • The parent/guardian form is fully available in Spanish. If another language would be more convenient, please contact mybarra@rocanm.org.

• Does my parent need a separate email address to complete the Parent/Guardian questionnaire? Can’t they just use my student email address?

  • The questionnaire should be sent to an email address that does not belong to the student. We operate our evaluation process on the honor system, but feel this is the best and most direct way to have parents/guardians offer input into our process. If your parent/guardian does not have a distinct email address from your own, the form can downloaded in either English or Spanish, and their responses can be scanned/photographed and sent over email.

• What if contact with a parent is complicated/uncomfortable?

  • If there are special circumstances about your parents/guardians, still enter their name and relation to you in the required fields. Mark "No" when asked about their email address. Then, in the additional information box, share a brief explanation of your situation. Please also name an adult (and their email or phone number) who we can speak to. You can also have a trusted teacher/counselor reach out to us with more context.

6. teacher/counselor recommendation

We strongly recommend students request teacher recommendations multiple weeks in advance so that teachers have enough time to complete them. We ask for a recommendation from a high school counselor (guidance, career/college) or any high school instructor in the following subjects: science, math, history, English, foreign or indigenous language. Try to ask an adult who knows you well, and someone who you may have shared your college aspirations with. We gain the most from a recommender who can speak to your motivation, growth, and/or resilience.

There is also space in the application for you to request a recommendation from a non-school context. This is not required, but if someone comes to mind (a community leader, non relative/friend, piano teacher, coach, church pastor, someone who has supervised you at work or with community service, etc.), we would love to include their perspective when reviewing your application. These are also usually welcome in college applications as well.