Posted on 09/01/2009 10:31:00 AM PDT by freespirited
AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin is pulling out of the National Merit Scholarship Program to focus on needs-based financial assistance.
The university — second only to Harvard in the number of merit scholars enrolled — said budget pressures were causing it to end its participation in the merit-based program, which awards scholarships to top high school achievers.
Colleges nationwide are struggling to meet higher demand for financial aid amid fewer resources from states and their own endowed scholarship funds.
“The financial constraints brought about by the economy on families and the university require the redirection of resources to ensure accessibility to UT Austin by all qualified students, regardless of ability to pay,” the UT Office of Student Financial Services said in a statement Tuesday.
The university will redirect the scholarship money to financial assistance programs designed to help students who have a hard time paying for tuition and fees. It had 281 National Merit Scholars enrolled last year.
Over the last decade, nearly every state has started or expanded politically popular “merit aid” programs that reward students with high SAT scores or GPAs, even those whose families could afford college costs.
But the economic downturn, and the surge in demand for need-based aid, is causing a number of institutions to rethink that trend.
The National Merit Scholarship program is a hybrid, run by a nonprofit and supported by companies and individual universities. Students advance to the semifinal round based on the scores on the PSAT exam, taken by about 1.5 million students each year. About 16,000 are selected as semifinalists, and based on other application materials such as high school grades and essays, 8,200 receive awards.
The initial phase of the selection process has drawn criticism from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, which argues scholarships shouldn’t be awarded on the basis of test scores alone.
A number of state universities, such as the University of Oklahoma and Arizona State, have attempted to boost their student profiles by offering National Merit Scholars generous financial aid packages.
Presumably too many Asians, Jews, and white kids getting in.
What this article really means...
That the Third-World illegal alien criminals from barely-Spanish-speaking countries, who already get in-state tuition even though they are not citizens or legal residents, are not smart enough to attain merit scholarships.
Which further means....if you are white, intelligent, a US citizen who legally resides in Texas, but come from modest means....your tuition aid sources have noticeably dropped...
Just being honest.....
Bingo. Your tax dollars at work. The entire Mexican state of Nuevo Leon will be admitted and provided with financial aid, but your Merit Scholars from Midland and Tyler won’t be able to get close to Austin.
Pulling out all the stops to get another National Champion in football...
The University of Texas has never and will never get in a pissing contest with any aggy on the size of anything. Texas aready knows the outcome.
This decision is sad, and more colleges will follow. I guess we don’t need to offer higher education to the brightest anymore.
Good. They can all just go to A&M!! Gig ‘Em Aggies!!!
My daughter was a national merit scholar, one of three in her HS graduating class. The other two went to the AF Academy and Anapolis.
they wouldn’t want to cut down on the number of bureaucrats would we??? Nah.. just get rid of smart kids. That’s a great idea, ya bunch of T-sips.
The ongoing push to the lowest common denominator; the Marxist push for the bell curve, not excellence; control, not improvement;
This is symptomatic of the Left, who only can move people down, as their power could be threatened.
They want to admit more anchor babies to re-shape the workplace and push Anglos and Asians to work harder at lesser schools to excel.
Classic social engineering.
From Each According to his Ability,
To Each According to his Need...
See how beautifully that all works together?
Ping.
Our two older children were excellent students in high school. However, when it came to applying for scholarships for college we soon found out how little academic excellence counted for in the actual disbursement of scholarships. What was more important was the color of one’s skin, one’s ethnic group, our family income (middle class need not apply), involvement in sports or student government, or whether our children had a sob story to tell. In addition, we found that our children were actually penalized for working in high school. Their income was added to ours, meaning that those who did not work were “needier”.
This just pisses me off. It’s all about “How many students can we graduate?” and not about the quality of education. It’s about numbers. The welfare state has. to. end.
I say fine. Scale back. But... do not sacrifice academic excellence in favor of a huge student enrollment. If t.u. wants to be academically competitive with ivy league schools, if t.u. wants to be elite, it needs to stop doling out financial aid to illegals, foreign students, and throw caution to the wind. It’s okay to be selective. Being selective is NOT discriminating on the basis of race or religion (race and religion should never be a part of the mix in the first place). It’s discriminating on the basis of academic achievement. If they want good students, then they need to recruit good students.
Numbers. How many minority students can you fit into a university? Stoopid lib nation. Okay. Stepping off the soapbox. If anyone wants to flame, flame away. Just don’t expect me to respond.
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