New scholarship programs to make OU more comparative

By Molly Tinker
For The Post

Ohio University students received $117,064,501 in financial aid throughout the 1999-2000 academic year, making OU comparable to other state schools in Ohio such as Bowling Green State University, the University of Akron, Ohio State University and the University of Toledo.

OU was able to disperse an average of $3,837 per student in aid for the 1999-2000 academic year, according to the 1999-2000 Financial Aid Summary. This amount includes money from government loans and grants, scholarships from outside programs, and aid granted by the university. While that amount is higher than OSU's $2,730 per student average, it falls below the amounts of the other three schools.

Akron awarded a total of $111,370,262 the same year, averaging $4,787 per student, said Michelle Ellis, senior associate director of Akron's financial aid office. Toledo awarded $92,422,083, averaging around $4,400 per student, said Lisa Hasselschwert, associate director of Toledo's financial aid office. Bowling Green's total that year was $100,887,351, with the highest average of $5,218 per student, said Conrad McRoberts, senior research associate of institution research at BGSU.

OU plans to increase its amount of scholarship money to become more competitive with other state schools, starting with the 2001-2002 academic year, said Sondra Williams, director of financial aid at OU. A new scholarship program, The Student Achievement Awards, is now available for the class of 2005. These awards are merit-based and will take the place of older, less valuable scholarships such as the Bobcat Award, said Williams.

With these awards, freshmen starting in 2001 in the top 20 percent of their class with an ACT Assessment score of 32 or higher or a Scholastic Aptitude Test score of 1400 or higher will be named Presidential Scholars. These students will receive a scholarship covering the cost of in-state tuition, said Williams. The same amount will be awarded to all University Scholars, valedictorians with an ACT of 30 or higher or an SAT of 1320 or above.

Valedictorians with lower test scores will receive the Valedictorian Award of $1000. The Founders Award, $3,500, will be given to students in the top 20 percent of their class with an ACT score of 30 or 31 or an SAT score of 1320-1390, said Williams.

All four of these scholarships are renewable up to four years as long as students maintain a 3.3 grade point average, she said.

OU freshman Rebecca Jump received a lesser scholarship, but would have been eligible for the University Scholars award if she had chosen to start at OU in 2001. "I wish these scholarships had been available last year. It would have saved some of us a lot of money," Jump said.

OU sophomore Amanda Mangan said that more aid is offered than when she was a freshman.

"It's a good idea they're offering more aid to freshman, because there wasn't that much when I was a freshman," Mangan said.