The latest group of Rhodes Scholars was announced by The Rhodes Trust yesterday, with 32 Americans chosen to receive two to four years of study at the University of Oxford in England, all expenses paid.

The Rhodes scholarships were created in 1902 through the will of Cecil Rhodes, who hoped to broaden leaders’ minds by exposing them to different cultures, and the first group of Americans entered Oxford in 1904. It is now the oldest international fellowship offered, and the number of applicants who apply make it one of the most competitive academic and merit-based scholarships out there. This year, more than 1,500 students sought their college or university’s endorsement into the program, and 805 received those endorsements, just the first step in the application process. The winners will enter Oxford next October.

So how do you apply for the prestigious award?

• Candidates for the award must be endorsed by their college, and any rules or deadlines regarding that endorsement will be set by your Rhodes Scholarship institutional representative.
• In addition to that endorsement, applications will require five to eight letters of recommendation, a personal essay, a certified transcript, a list of activities, photograph, and proof of citizenship. Deadlines fall in October annually, but as the process is involved, it’s best to get an early start.
• Committees in 16 U.S. districts across the country invite the strongest applicants to appear for interviews, where questions will explore the information you’ve given on your application.
• Applicants are chosen based on the following criteria, set forward by Cecil Rhodes: high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor. (You don’t need to be a star athlete to fulfill that last criteria, just show a “fondness for sports.”)

A group of international students is also chosen annually, with 80 scholars joining the Americans this year. If you’re interested in an international experience but aren’t interested studying at Oxford, there are hundreds of study abroad opportunities available in nearly every discipline, and nearly every country. Broaden your horizons, and know there are also study abroad scholarships out there to help you fund your time abroad.

Posted: under Fellowships.
Tags: academic scholarships, Fellowships, international student scholarship, merit-based, study abroad

Comments (0) Nov 23 2009

Financial aid programs that are simple and transparent are most effective for low-income students when it comes to not only getting those students to apply for the aid, but getting them enrolled in college at all, according to a scholarly paper released this week.

In a review of more than a dozen studies looking at how to make college more affordable and attainable to the neediest students, the paper “Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the Postsecondary Attainment of the Poor” from the National Bureau of Economic Research looked at the effectiveness of a variety of programs, including popular federal and private scholarships, Pell Grants and subsidized student loans. The paper concluded that the easier it is for students to apply, the more likely they will be to apply, and the more likely they’ll be going to college as they wouldn’t have the funding to do so without applying.

The information that students are intimidated by paperwork and financial aid information isn’t surprising. A recent blog post showed the results of a recent study on how professional assistance while filling out the FAFSA boosts the number of students filling out the financial aid application and receiving generous funding. What was more surprising this time around was that certain programs lauded for their assistance of low-income students could be doing better, according to the paper.

An article in Inside Higher Ed today describes the authors’ position on the Pell Grant in particular. While the program is effective in targeting low-income students who may not have had the opportunity to attend college otherwise, the amount of paperwork required to receive an award makes the program not as accessible as it could - and should - be. A piece of a recent bill passed in the House and now awaiting Senate action ( the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009) would simplify the financial aid application process and potentially make low-income students more comfortable with the process.

The paper also concluded that programs tied to academic performance and that have a broad base when it comes to who can apply - even if the awards are not specifically tied to a student’s financial need - are more desirable to low-income students. Why would the neediest students want to compete against a larger pool of applicants for merit-based scholarships? Perhaps the applications for these awards are less time-consuming or easier to manage. Inside Higher Ed gives the example of Georgia’s HOPE program, which awards free public tuition to any student with a 3.0 GPA in high school.

The paper was written by David Deming of Harvard University and Susan Dynarski of the University of Michigan, with support from the Robin Hood Foundation. The Robin Hood Foundation is preparing to release a book on the topic: Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty When Resources are Limited. For more information on financial aid application strategies, including tips on filling out the FAFSA, browse through our site so that you’re prepared when it’s time to find money for college.

Posted: under College News, Financial Aid, High School News.
Tags: college news, Financial Aid, merit-based, need-based

Comments (0) Sep 30 2009

Although need-based financial aid has remained steady at most colleges, some schools are looking at their merit-based scholarship programs as the next place to cut if budgets continue to shrink. Merit-based scholarships, which do not usually consider need, rely on GPA and standardized test scores as measures of students’ academic achievement and potential for excellence on the college level.

A criticism has been that the awards go disproportionately to students of wealthy families who may have the resources to better prepare for tests and assistance outside of the classroom. However, cuts in merit-based scholarship programs may also affect the middle class, a group of students who may receive some funding, but due to their parents’ combined incomes will receive far more in student loans than scholarships and grants compared to lower-income applicants. Perhaps that’s how it should work, but middle-class families with steady incomes don’t always have the resources left over to contribute much to college savings accounts like 529 Plans, especially in a tough economy.

Should merit-based scholarships then also consider some degree of need before disbursement? An article this week in The Chronicle of Higher Education described several schools looking to trim their merit-based scholarship programs, especially those that rely on state funding to exist. In Florida, the Bright Futures Scholarship Program will stop funding full public-college tuition in favor of a set amount based on credit hours. In West Virginia, Promise Scholarship awards will max out at $4,750 rather than the former full rides. In Michigan, a state that has been hit particularly hard in this economy, their own Promise Scholarship program may be cut entirely. The University of Texas recently announced it would no longer be sponsoring National Merit, a popular national scholarship program that students qualify for based on standardized test scores. Students there had been able to receive $13,000 over four years. The university promises an increase in need-based financial aid to assist those students who had been receiving National Merit aid but who also qualified for many of the federal need-based financial aid programs.

With a limited amount of funding coming from both the state and federal level, schools have to decide how best to approach financial aid. The trend has been to place a higher importance on need, as the rationale is that many students who had been receiving merit-based scholarships would be able to afford college anyway, or be eligible for outside academic scholarships. And those who would have applied for need-based financial aid before the recession are only in need of more aid today.

One school is taking the Good Samaritan approach. At Pennsylvania State University’s Schreyer Honors College, parents and the college bound who did not fill out financial aid forms but received the school’s $3,500 merit-based scholarships for gaining admittance to the honors college are being asked to consider allocating that money instead to accepted students with a higher level financial need. In short, the money goes to students who really need it. Should it be more complicated than that?

Posted: under College Costs, College and the Economy, Scholarships.
Tags: College and the Economy, College Costs, merit-based, need-based

Comments (0) Sep 22 2009

A new book is shedding light on graduation rates at state colleges, and also causing a stir with its findings and recommendations.  The book Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities, was written by William G. Bowen, a former president of Princeton University, Michael S. McPherson, a former president of Macalester College, and Matthew M. Chingos, a graduate student at Harvard University. It shows many of the nation’s top public schools are coming up short when it comes to graduating students in four years, especially low-income and minority students.

The book analyzes the four-year and six-year graduation rates of students at 21 flagship universities and 47 four-year public universities in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.  Among the findings, the authors reveal that flagship universities, typically the most competitive and prestigious in their state university systems, graduate only 49 percent of their students in four years, with other state colleges having even less success.  The six-year graduation rates for both sets of schools are better, but vary widely based on several factors discussed in the book.

Disparities by common demographic factors, namely race and socioeconomic status, were found in the research for the book, and were most pronounced among male students. However, the most striking differences come in terms of schools’ selectivity.  Some of these disparities include:

• Graduation rates of 82-89% for the most selective and second most selective categories of schools and most competitive category of students (3.5+ high school GPA and 1200+ SAT score), but graduation rates of only 59% for the same category of students at the least selective schools.
• Graduation rates of above 70% for all students at the most selective schools, regardless of GPA or test scores.
• The disparity between the graduation rates of the most and least competitive students at the least selective schools was only 11 percentage points, while the disparity between students of similar ability at schools of different selectivity ranged 21 to 30 percentage points.
• The least competitive group of students (GPA of less than 3.0 and/or SAT of less than 1000) did better at the most selective schools (71% graduation rate) than the most competitive students did at the least selective schools (59% graduation rate).

These results have many questioning the effectiveness of academic scholarships and other merit-based aid, especially in light of the University of Texas at Austin’s recent decision to stop sponsoring the National Merit Scholarship Program. More so, though, they have experts, including the book’s authors, wondering what is causing this disparity in graduation rates.

Price plays a huge role for students of low socioeconomic status, pushing them to attend the least expensive (and often least selective) schools or to opt out of four-year colleges entirely. Rising costs also could play a role in dropout rates among poorer students, so the availability of financial aid for all four years is crucial to graduation.

One of the biggest problems identified in the book is a phenomenon dubbed “under-matching.” Highly qualified students are aiming low in the college application process, attending less selective schools with lower graduation rates when they could easily be accepted to and graduate from more selective schools with higher graduation rates. Students most likely to under-match are low socioeconomic status students whose parents did not attend or did not graduate from college. The higher a student’s income and parents’ level of education, the less likely the student is to under-match.

Based on this information, the authors suggest that schools focus their efforts on encouraging students to graduate in four years and to remain in school until they graduate. Keeping tuition low is a part of this, as are readjusting requirements to make graduating in four years more doable and, above all else, making it clear that students are expected to graduate in four years.

Graduation rates are gaining attention from other corners, as well. Washington Monthly included graduation rates in their recently released college rankings, and another study published this summer by the American Enterprise Institute compared graduation rates at colleges. The Education Department is also doing its part to make information on graduation rates available to students who complete the FAFSA on the Web.

Posted: under College Applications, College Costs, College Culture, College News, College Search.
Tags: academic scholarships, applications, choosing a college, College Applications, College Costs, College Culture, college news, College Search, education study, graduation rates, merit-based, state colleges, state news

Comments (0) Sep 10 2009

Penn State University’s Schreyer Honors College offers admitted students $3,500 per year merit scholarships, a common practice among state colleges that want to entice the best students to attend.  Students at Penn State and their parents are doing something unique with these scholarship awards, though: they’re giving them to other Schreyer students.

Parents of scholarship recipients who did not apply for need-based financial aid receive a letter asking them to consider making a donation in the amount of the scholarship their children received.  The letter, penned by the parents of other Schreyer students, emphasizes the amount of unmet financial need some of their children’s classmates face and asks them to consider whether they need the extra $3,500 in order to pay their tuition bill.  If not, they are asked to give the money to students for whom the extra money could make the difference between attending college at Penn State and staying home.

The university stresses that students are not being asked to give up their academic scholarships in this campaign. Rather, they ask that parents who can spare the extra money because their child received a scholarship would consider donating to help other deserving students who last year had more than $1 million in unmet financial need.

Honors colleges, even at large state universities, tend to be relatively close-knit communities of top-performing students who are engaged in their studies and their campus communities.  It’s not surprising, then, that parents of Schreyer Honors College students hit upon an idea to help their children’s struggling classmates last year when the economy first began to sink into recession.  The campaign was initiated by parents and supported by the university, which sends the letters on the parents’ behalf.

Last year’s appeal raised around $228,000, with over $120,000 of that going directly to 34 students who needed help paying for school.  The remaining $100,000 went towards establishing an endowed trust to ensure that this effort continues helping students in the future.  So far this year, the campaign has raised $13,000 from 11 donors.

Posted: under College News, College and the Economy, Financial Aid, Scholarships.
Tags: academic scholarships, College and the Economy, college news, college scholarships, Financial Aid, merit-based, need-based, Pennsylvania scholarships, Scholarships

Comments (0) Sep 09 2009

A group of Cuban students that had plans to attend American community colleges on U.S.-funded scholarships have been denied visa requests to leave their home country.

A Miami Herald article today says that some of the students were also expelled from the Cuban universities they had been attending prior to winning the awards. The group of about 30 Cuban students were part of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs scholarship program. The program, which received more than 750 applications from Cuban students this year, provides scholarships to international students interested in attending American colleges. Candidates are chosen based on merit and are offered one-year scholarships to community colleges in Arizona, Tennessee and Idaho in fields like business, agriculture and communications.

The article suggests that the Cuban government felt the students would have been adversely affected by enrolling in colleges in the United States, and that the scholarships aimed to “ideologically permeate university students” because they included a summer program for the students on developing their leadership skills. This was the first year Cuban students would have participated in the program.

American students, on the other hand, have had success enrolling in Cuban programs. Recently, a medical student from Dallas opted to finish her degree in Havana because the Cuban school offered her a full scholarship, monthly stipend and room and board paid for by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. The Latin American School of Medicine in Havana has seen an increase in the number of American students applying to its program the last few years. For those interested in less of a commitment but want a taste of college life outside the United States, perhaps a study abroad program is the way to go.

Posted: under College News, Scholarships.
Tags: college news, community college, merit-based, Scholarships

Comments (0) Sep 04 2009

The University of Texas has announced plans to withdraw as a sponsor of National Merit, a popular national scholarship program that students qualify for based on standardized test scores.  In an effort to focus on providing need-based financial aid, the university will no longer offer scholarships specifically for National Merit Scholars.  The University of Texas, which was second only to Harvard University in the number of National Merit Finalists it enrolled, offered qualifying students awards worth up to $13,000 over the course of four years.

Texas is not the first major university system to choose to cease participating in National Merit, a program that offers $2,500 scholarships to high school juniors who do well on the PSAT, with the potential for honorees to receive much larger scholarship awards from partner companies and universities.  Other institutions, including the University of California system, have previously chosen to withdraw sponsorship of National Merit, while many other schools have chosen not to offer awards specifically for National Merit winners.

National Merit has previously drawn criticism for its strong emphasis on high PSAT scores (other application materials are considered in selecting finalists, but semifinalists are chosen solely based on test scores).  Students from wealthier families who have access to the best high schools and a variety of test preparation resources typically do best on standardized tests, such as the PSAT, which results in scholarship awards like National Merit skewing towards affluent students who need less assistance paying for college.

A University of Texas official cited similar reasoning in the university’s decision to stop awarding National Merit Scholarships, stating that only one fourth of students receiving the scholarships typically bothered to apply for federal student financial aid, indicating the vast majority had access to other means of covering their college costs.  The students who are most likely to be hurt by the loss of this scholarship opportunity will likely be helped by the increase in need-based financial aid that the university is promising.

University officials stressed that applicants who would have been eligible for this award will still be able to compete for other academic scholarships, and the undergraduate students currently receiving this award will continue to do so for their full four years of eligibility.  Still, this announcement is likely to upset some students and to fuel the fires of the ongoing debate over merit-based versus need-based financial aid in colleges and universities.

Posted: under College Costs, College News, Financial Aid, High School, Scholarships.
Tags: academic scholarships, college news, college scholarships, Financial Aid, high school students, merit-based, need-based, PSAT, state colleges

Comments (0) Sep 02 2009

This week’s Scholarship of the Week is one of those rare scholarship opportunities that reward students for doing something they quite possibly already wanted to do.  The Zinch Ammunition for Tuition $25,000 Scholarship is a scholarship award for high school students who complete a profile on Zinch.com.  Applicants are judged based on both merit and need, as determined by the information they include in their Zinch student profiles.

So why is this something you might already want to do?  A profile on Zinch not only allows you to compete for a sizable amount of scholarship money, but also allows you to find colleges that cater to your interests and get in touch with recruiters from colleges you want to attend.  It’s not often you find a scholarship competition that not only helps you pay for college, but helps you find a college, as well.

Prize:

$25,000

Eligibility:

Posted: under High School, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, high school students, merit-based, need-based, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships

Comments (0) Feb 02 2009