Editorial: Unfortunately, aid only for new students

Earlier this week, West Virginia University announced the creation of two new scholarships for state residents, increased the value of existing scholarships and added an additional $250,000 in need-based aid.

The two new scholarships, the Rhododendron and the Shenandoah, will not be capped – they will be available to all incoming students that qualify.

It’s an appropriate move which follows the University’s commitment as a land-grant institution, which is, first and foremost, the education of the state of West Virginia.

The increased aid will undoubtedly be a financial boon to next year’s freshman class.

"There’s a group of us who work with new students coming in, and we recognized that there was a gap of students in our current structure," said Brenda Thompson, associate vice president for Enrollment Management.

"We thought adding two new scholarships would help (to fill that gap)."

The unfortunate part is that the increased aid will only apply to incoming students – not those currently enrolled at the University.

Both current students and those enrolling next fall will face the same planned four percent tuition increase for the 2010-2011 academic year.

The scholarships are simply a continuation of the long-established practice of weighing high school achievement more heavily than collegiate success when awarding limited financial aid dollars.

Yes, there are scholarships available from individual colleges and for individual degree programs. But those scholarships are inherently difficult to come by and perhaps even more difficult to learn about.

And yes, financial aid for high school graduates is vital for college attendance in the first place.

But that doesn’t mean that incoming students should have a monopoly on the majority of easily accessible aid, as many students struggled in high school before maturing and realizing the importance of academic success while in college.

For the University, financial aid should be made more accessible for both incoming and current students – and not just students loans, but actual grants and scholarships.

It’s a change that would help ease the burden for many at the University.
 

3 comments

Steven

Sat Nov 7 2009 22:40

What kills me is that a huge portion of that scholarship money ends up going to waste. Around half of the freshman class will end up dropping out in the first year, and yet no new funds ever seem to open up for anyone else. If anything incoming Freshman are the worst people to give money to; at least hold them to some higher standards. A monkey can maintain a 3.0 in high school.

Nick Brown

Fri Nov 6 2009 23:36

bummer for me.

Dave

Fri Nov 6 2009 09:05

Finally, an editorial by the DA that I agree with completely.

This is the way its always been. I came to WVU as an out of state student, was top of my class in high school, highest GPA you could have, very high SAT scores, yet the biggest scholarship I got from WVU covered only 1/3 of my tuition, while in-state students with significantly lower scores/GPA actually got paid to goto WVU. The year after I started, WVU created a new scholarship that would have paid close to 90% of my tuition. I asked to be given it, but was told by WVU that they could not give it to me since I was not a new student, even though I exceeded every qualification for the scholarship. I appealed that decision through every committee I could, complained to anyone who would listen, probably even ticked a few people in financial aid off with my persistence, but to no avail. Its pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

The whole scholarship system is a farce though. One can do well in high school (which, in some high schools, is pretty easy), then come to college and slack off, maintain a 3.0, and get much more in scholarship money than someone who works their butt off in college and gets a 4.0 every semester. Once you get out of your freshman year, scholarships should be re-appropriated based on your academic performance in college. The best students at WVU should be rewarded for their achievements while at WVU.

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