ALBANY, NY — (Marketwired) — 03/23/16 — Merit, whose platform “connects the dots” between high school, college, and career for millions of students and hundreds of institutions, today announced the rollout of free Merit accounts for more than 28,000 high schools in the United States. For the first time, high schools will have a way to see, share, and promote the everyday outcomes of each of their alumni at colleges and universities throughout the U.S.
“Most high schools are left in the dark about alumni outcomes after graduation, with — at best — only general information about admissions and progress available at a high price,” said Colin Mathews, founder and president of Merit. “That makes it impossible to help current students see role models for college success, and for high schools to track outcomes in real time,” he said.
Merit solves those issues by partnering with colleges and universities — more than 250 currently — that use the company–s platform to document, promote and share the everyday activities, achievements, and outcomes of each one of their students. Since launching in 2013, Merit has shared those updates with high schools via a free weekly email digest; now, those digests will link to a free Merit account that–s customized for every high school in the United States. Principals, guidance counselors, and other administrators or teachers will be able to log in and see stories about former students– current success at college.
“Merit is an invaluable way for our school to follow and promote the achievements of our alumni,” said Ben McMurray, principal of Ottawa Hills High School outside of Toledo, Ohio, which was recently recognized by Newsweek as the #1 high school in Ohio and #45 in the nation. “Previously, we found it challenging to track our former students beyond high school. Sharing these stories of alumni success can inspire our current students to achieve, and it helps our school demonstrate our role in positive outcomes,” McMurray said.
The free high school Merit accounts include regular, real-time updates added by colleges and universities about each school–s alumni; a directory of every college in the Merit network with analytical tools to discover alumni based on their interests and accomplishments; a customizable public Merit page for each high school that they can use as a landing page for students, families, and friends to discover stories about alumni; and more.
“These high school accounts are the next step in our mission to connect the dots between high school, college and career for every student — not just the lucky or the privileged,” said Mathews. “Every student at our partner institutions helps to chart a journey of success, and sharing those stories helps those students stay on course while marking the path for younger people to learn from and follow themselves.”
Merit connects every student–s story to the people and organizations that care deeply about their success, thus making the big picture of what it means to move along the path from high school to college to career clearer for millions of people. More than 250 colleges and universities currently use Merit to document and share student success with a network of families, high schools, legislators, communities, and employers. These institutions publish an average of 100,000 updates about students each month to more than 1.4 million student Merit pages that are connected to Merit–s network of stakeholders. Additional information is available at
Image Available:
Scott Phillips
Scott Phillips + Associates, Inc.
312.943.9100 x28
You must be logged in to post a comment Login