2008 Woodie Awards
Colleges increasing merit-based aid
By Frank Greve
Issue date: 3/4/05 Section: News
College tuitions are soaring, but fewer families are paying the sticker price.
A multibillion-dollar surge in financial aid based on merit, rather than only on financial need, is the big reason. Fourteen states now offer residents merit-based grants to help middle-class families meet college costs. Hundreds of colleges and universities woo top scholars and gifted musicians with tuition breaks regardless of family income.
"It defies the principles of lots of vice presidents for finance, but it makes sense to the parents," said Kevin Coveney, the admission dean at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., where any high school National Honor Society member is guaranteed a $10,000 tuition break.
The effect of all the new aid is to drive down the number of students who are footing full college costs themselves. It's 37 percent now, down from 45 percent in 2000, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. At private four-year colleges, the number drops to just 17 percent. The aid's abundance makes tuition increases for many students as theoretical as list price increases for new cars.
Georgia's HOPE scholars, high school grads with B averages in college prep courses, get free tuition at state schools plus $300. Florida's Bright Futures scholars get three-quarters tuition breaks plus $300 at state schools if they earn B averages and SAT scores of 970 or better. B-plus students with 1270 SAT scores get free tuition. Students at in-state private colleges in Georgia and Florida get equivalent breaks.
Michigan asks only that its students pass a state exam to score a $2,500 grant for a state school or $1,000 for an out-of-state one.
The programs are huge. Georgia has spent $2.3 billion on 800,000 students since its pioneering program began in 1993. Florida's merit grants now help 120,000 college kids; Michigan's, 49,000.
So popular are the state initiatives, many funded with lottery revenues or tobacco-settlement proceeds, that legislators find they're difficult to cut, especially given that tuition increases averaged 10.5 percent at public universities last year. That's about four times the overall inflation rate.
A multibillion-dollar surge in financial aid based on merit, rather than only on financial need, is the big reason. Fourteen states now offer residents merit-based grants to help middle-class families meet college costs. Hundreds of colleges and universities woo top scholars and gifted musicians with tuition breaks regardless of family income.
"It defies the principles of lots of vice presidents for finance, but it makes sense to the parents," said Kevin Coveney, the admission dean at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., where any high school National Honor Society member is guaranteed a $10,000 tuition break.
The effect of all the new aid is to drive down the number of students who are footing full college costs themselves. It's 37 percent now, down from 45 percent in 2000, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. At private four-year colleges, the number drops to just 17 percent. The aid's abundance makes tuition increases for many students as theoretical as list price increases for new cars.
Georgia's HOPE scholars, high school grads with B averages in college prep courses, get free tuition at state schools plus $300. Florida's Bright Futures scholars get three-quarters tuition breaks plus $300 at state schools if they earn B averages and SAT scores of 970 or better. B-plus students with 1270 SAT scores get free tuition. Students at in-state private colleges in Georgia and Florida get equivalent breaks.
Michigan asks only that its students pass a state exam to score a $2,500 grant for a state school or $1,000 for an out-of-state one.
The programs are huge. Georgia has spent $2.3 billion on 800,000 students since its pioneering program began in 1993. Florida's merit grants now help 120,000 college kids; Michigan's, 49,000.
So popular are the state initiatives, many funded with lottery revenues or tobacco-settlement proceeds, that legislators find they're difficult to cut, especially given that tuition increases averaged 10.5 percent at public universities last year. That's about four times the overall inflation rate.
