By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

POLAND – No additional students here will go to college, even though the school now requires all seniors to apply.

Poland Regional High School officials and some students say the application process is helpful, especially to seniors who don’t believe they are college material.

“They’re comfortable taking on the process,” said Principal Derek Pierce. “It opens kids’ minds to what’s possible.”

The high school, which serves 570 students from Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls, first required its seniors to apply to at least one college, trade school, military branch or AmeriCorps program two years ago. Students did not have to be accepted and did not have to enroll, but they had to apply in order to get their high school diploma. The high school gave each student $20 toward application fees.

At the time, Poland’s college attendance was higher than the state average, but officials wanted to guide the most reluctant students through the daunting college application process. They hoped some would decide to go, while others would learn from the experience and set higher goals.

Poland was the first school in Maine to make college applications mandatory, Maine Department of Education officials said then.

In 2003, a year before it required college applications, 86 percent of Poland’s seniors planned to go to college. That went up to 88 percent in 2004, when applications became mandatory.

This year, that number fell back to 86 percent. Five percent will go into the military, also about the same as in years past.

The school failed to boost its college attendance, but Pierce believes the graduation requirement is still a success.

A handful of students got into college but decided to work instead. They may not have applied if the high school hadn’t forced them, he said. Now they can defer their enrollment and have a choice later on.

“They say, Hey, you know what, this might be an option for me,'” Pierce said.

Those who didn’t get in, he said, will know how the application process works so they can try again.

Awesome’ process

Some students liked the requirement. Others didn’t.

Ashley Lagasse has been on both sides.

The 18-year-old graduate thought the application requirement was “very, very stupid” when she started her senior year last fall. Now, she calls it “awesome.”

“Some kids don’t believe in themselves. They don’t even want to bother (applying,)” she said.

Lagasse said she would have started her college applications without being forced, but she wasn’t sure she would have finished.

Her parents weren’t familiar with the complicated process. She got most of her help from teachers and guidance counselors, who were trained and available because the school made college applications a priority.

Lagasse said Poland’s support helped her get into Central Maine Community College in Auburn, where she will prepare for a career in nursing.

Most of her friends would have applied to school without being pushed, she said. A few wouldn’t have.

One friend reluctantly applied, but still isn’t planning to go. Like Pierce, Lagasse doesn’t see that as a failure.

“I think now maybe if she decides to go, she’ll be prepared,” she said.