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Scholarship amounts adjust with rising tuition costs |
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Tuesday, 28 August 2007 |
by JILLIAN SWORDS
Intern News Reporter
Making good grades just became potentially twice as lucrative at Appalachian State University.
Starting this school year, the Chancellor’s Scholarship, the highest-paying of all academic scholarships awarded at Appalachian, will pay $9,600, or full institutional costs, to each of its 15 recipients.
In the past, the scholarship covered $4,500 of school fees for about 25 students a year.
Coordinator for the Heltzer Honors Program Dr. Lynn M. Sanders said this reallocation of funds is due
to the fact that with the old system an increasing percentage of students receiving Chancellor’s
Scholarships were from the alternate list or students that had not even applied or interviewed for the scholarship.
Scholarship Advisor for the honors program Angela D. Mead said the
issues with non-interviewed recipients stem from an increasingly
stronger applicant pool.
Many of the scholarship committee’s first choices for Chancellor’s
Scholars are also offered strong scholarships at other institutions and
choose to go elsewhere. The committee then turns to alternates to fill
the spots, Mead said.
“I think the administration was convinced that if I’m combing the
streets to hand out a scholarship, this is a problem,” Sanders said.
“The original intent [for the Chancellor’s Scholarship] was certainly
for it to be a full scholarship.”
“It’s hard to say it’s a prestigious scholarship if it’s only paying half,” Sanders said.
In 1996, the Chancellor’s Scholarship’s $4,000 paid 92 percent of its recipient’s fees.
Over the next 11 years, however, the scholarship failed to keep up with the steadily rising tuition costs,
even after the scholarship increased by $500 in 2001.
Non-interviewed recipients are given the scholarship after the May 1
deadline, meaning that they have already accepted admission into
Appalachian.
This took the incentive aspect out of awarding scholarships for the university, Sanders said.
“We’re happy to give those students money,” Sanders said. However,
“from [the administration’s] point of view, scholarships are about
recruiting.”
The pilot program also qualified out-of-state recipients for in-state tuition.
Because sports scholarships provide the same allowances, this rule is
now being extended to academic scholarships as well, Sanders said.
However, the funds are not available to grandfather in sophomore through senior Chancellor’s Scholars to the new system.
“I guess it’s good they’re now doing this, [but] it would only be 40 or
50 students at the most [to grandfather us in],” exercise science major
and junior Chancellor’s scholar Amanda R. Roberts said.
“They could cover our last two years.”
Student Development Vice Chancellor Robert K. Field said the New River
Light and Power Company and the University Bookstore supply the funds
for academic scholarships.
“[This pool of academic funds] increased in the last two years from $700,000 to $850,000,” Feid said.
Assistant Director of Admissions Morgann Greene said these additional
funds covered an increased number of general admissions merit-based
scholarships.
These scholarships are awarded in amounts up to $2,500.
“Of course ideally, we’d have 25 scholarships that are full scholarships,” Sanders said of the
Chancellor’s Scholarship. Still, “[on the administration’s part, these changes] reflect a change in philosophy.”
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