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Financial aid eases monetary strain |
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Tuesday, 06 November 2007 |
 | Manogin
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by REBECCA GARDNER
News Reporter
Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part series.
Loans are a big part of many college students financial aid.
However, many students consider grants and scholarships to be ideal as they do not have to be paid back.
Grants are handled through financial aid and scholarships are handled through the admissions office.
There are three types of grants - federal grants, state grants, and institutional grants.
“Grants are based on the financial strength of the family and they are
not paid back by the student,” Director of Student Financial Aid Esther
Manogin said. “Students have to demonstrate financial need and the
results from FAFSA take into account the household size, number in
college, taxes paid…then we screen students for the eligibility of
grants.”
One major eligibility requirement for students is that for state grants, they have to be a resident of North Carolina.
“I work mainly with freshmen in admissions with my job and our
admissions scholarships are university scholarships that are available
only to incoming freshmen,” Assistant Director of Admissions Morgann
Greene said. “The departmental scholarships are more based for current
students.”
Scholarships are gifts that are based on merit and academic performance, Greene said.
The scholarship deadline for incoming freshmen is Nov. 15.
There are 18 different university scholarships available for incoming
freshmen, ranging from the Academic Excellence Scholarship that is
merit-based, to the Technology Scholarship and the Chancellor’s
Scholarship.
“Many have specific requirements,” Greene said. “For example, there may
be a business scholarship that is available only to incoming freshmen
with an intended business major.”
Some of the money used for the admissions scholarship is endowed, but
most all scholarship money is funded through the university, Greene
said.
The departmental scholarship money is endowed by donors of the
university and some is supported through grant programs, Greene said.
“You can stack some scholarships and some you can’t,” Greene said. “For
example, you could stack the Academic Scholarship, Diversity
Scholarship, and the Communication Scholarship if you wanted to as long
as all committees approve.”
It is possible for students to lose their scholarships for various reasons.
If students receive an admissions scholarship for being an intended
business major, and end up switching to a psychology major, he or she
would lose their scholarship, Greene said.
If a student loses their scholarship, they do not have to pay it back.
“We support the Teaching Fellows Scholarship but that scholarship is awarded by the state of North Carolina,” Greene said.
There are 45 Teaching Fellows Scholarships available at Appalachian State University.
“We help [the state] with mailings, contacting them, etc.,” Greene said.
Junior elementary education major Rachel M. Warriner is an Appalachian State University Teaching Fellow.
“The most beneficial thing it does is through the activities that go
along with Teaching Fellows,” Warriner said. “For example, we’ve done a
service trip for a day, we have traveled to Washington, D.C., and we
have traveled across the state looking at different school systems.
During my senior year, we will have a senior orientation week and we
get to work with supervisors, so this program really teaches us a lot.”
Generally, most of the university scholarships awarded are $1,000 and
the range is from $1,000 to $2,500 with the largest being the
Chancellor’s Scholarship with full tuition paid, Greene said.
“Our goal is to assist as many students as possible with scholarships,” Greene said.
“Scholarships reward students for working hard in high school and
provide an opportunity to help fund their education. For most freshmen,
these scholarships are renewable, so they could essentially have a
scholarship for all four years of college for doing well in high
school.”
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