Posted on 10/19/2008 9:22:18 PM PDT by buccaneer81
6 cities' students can get free ride at University of Toledo Sunday, October 19, 2008 9:42 PM By Encarnacion Pyle THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Columbus high-school students shopping for a college bargain will have a new option.
Starting next fall, the University of Toledo will offer scholarships that cover tuition and fees to public-school graduates from Columbus and the state's five other big cities.
"It's a tremendous opportunity for our kids, especially in today's economy," said Kate Webster, a counselor at Columbus Alternative High School.
Under the "UT Guarantee," public high-school seniors in Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo can apply for a scholarship - as long as they have at least a B average and can show financial need.
Students must file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA, and qualify for a Pell Grant, the main federal-aid program for needy students.
Tuition and fees at the University of Toledo now cost $7,929. Under the guarantee, the school will pay whatever isn't covered by Pell and state grants.
Officials hope that the program gives students hope that college is possible.
"Due to today's high cost of a college education, many high-school students and their parents don't think about it as a realistic opportunity," said Lawrence Burns, who oversees the school's enrollment services, marketing and communication.
The scholarships also will help the school spread the UT name throughout the state and build enrollment from cities outside Toledo, Burns said. The college has 22,000 students and would like to add 2,500 new undergraduate students in the next two to three years.
Right now, only about 11 percent of the school's 3,900 freshmen come from the cities that are the target of the program, including 35 from Columbus.
The school especially wants to attract more African-American and Latino students, Burns said, as well as those who would be the first in their families to go to college.
Nationwide, many colleges have started offering free rides to make higher education realistic for students of all backgrounds.
Georgia introduced one of the earliest programs, in 1993. And a group of anonymous donors created a similar program in Michigan in 2005 for graduates of Kalamazoo's public high schools.
In Ohio, Miami University started picking up the tuition and fees of Ohio students with family incomes of less than $35,000 last year. So far, 320 students have received the awards. They also get assistance with room, board and books.
"The students are simply phenomenal," said Laurie Koehler, Miami's director of admissions. "We have honors and scholars students. About two-thirds have been first-generation college students, and close to 30 percent are students of color."
No other Ohio college has a program exactly like the UT Guarantee, but several offer more-specific scholarships for needy students.
Ohio State, for example, grants full rides - tuition and room and board - to at least one student in each of the state's 88 counties in a program for high-achieving, low-income students. Ohio University blends merit and need-based aid in its Gateway Grant program, awarding each eligible student $600 to $2,700.
"Our scholarship is really intended to set the record clear that OSU wants students from throughout the state - and not just Columbus," said Tally Hart, OSU's senior adviser for economic access.
The new University of Toledo scholarship is good for four years - as long as recipients keep a 3.0 grade-point average on a scale in which 4.0 is all A's, complete 30 credit hours each year and file a FAFSA form annually.
The school hopes to attract about 80 more students from Ohio's major metropolitan cities, costing $682,000.
Officials said recent enrollment growth and projected increases for future years should offset the cost. The school also requires students who live 50 miles outside the campus to live in a dorm their first year, which costs about $8,000.
Although the University of Toledo hasn't attracted a lot of Columbus students in the past, the scholarship likely will prompt more to take a look, said Diane Ging, supervisor of higher-education partnerships for the Columbus schools.
"Students need options," Ging said. "And we think at least 300 students of our 2,500 graduating class should be eligible."
For more information, go to www.utoledo.edu/admission/scholarships/bluegold.html.
epyle@dispatch.com
Obama is laughing.
Ohio ping!
Available academic majors include:
Listed in order of lowest to highest intellectual standards:
Journalism
Political “Science”
Education
Art
Underwater Basket Weaving
Marshmallow Cooking
Even then, there will be lower than a 5% grad rate - (that is, until they lower the standards to congressional levels).
Free tutoring will be offered by MSM “journalists” in cheating and looking good whilst doing it.
In Florida and Georgia you can get free tuition for 4 years at a state university (if you’re a state resident), but it is merit based, not needs based. In Florida it’s paid for by money from the lottery. Qualification for the scholarship is based on your SAT/ACT score and GPA, then you have to keep a 3.0 GPA to maintain the scholarship.
My kids don’t qualify for needs based education, and my tax dollars go to those who do. Spreading the wealth. Obama-economics. The outs in his education plan are emphasized by the word “most” (most Americans and most students). My kids have to apply all over the place for merit scholarships while Obama and his libtard friends are handing out my tax dollars in needs based free educations for people I don’t know. Socialists. I’m expecting to get means tested out of Social Security. I’ll never make it out of middle class, because there won’t be any incentives to start up small business under Pelosi/Reid/Obama.
Same here.
I have no problem offering a limited number of scholarships for actual scholars. I have a problem giving money to someone who think a scholarship is something that travels on water.
Our middle-class tax dollars at work. Not only do we have to purchase homes for the poor, we now have to pay for their children’s college education. Just great!
They don’t mention UT insisted that everyone on the university staff take a pay cut in order to “spread the wealth”?
/s
That seems like discrimination to me
When it comes to free educations you get what you pay for.
Complete and utter crap.
I assume your summary of the Florida law is accurate, but Georgia's Hope Scholarship is based on "merit" only in that it has minimum requirements. Tuition at state schools is free if you graduate from a Georgia high school; test scores are not considered. Once in school, you do have to maintain a 3.0. It is not merit-based in that someone with a 4.0 high school GPA does not have any advantage over someone with a 4.0.
Of course, automatic free tuition does not mean automatic admission; you still have to get in. The result has been higher admission standards throughout the system. Students who would once have applied to Georgia as a safety school are now looking at West Georgia or Georgia Southern, with a fair number of them transferring to UGA later.
Interesting, thanks for the info. I have a friend whose kids used the Hope, and I knew they had to maintain a certain grade point in college, so I assumed it was merit based. Here’s the info on the Bright Futures.
http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/bf/fasrequire.htm
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