<p>I was accepted, and I'm just waiting on a financial aid offer to commit. I've been checking things out further, and it looks as though the Odyssey Scholarships could run out by 2010. There's a benchmark of 38 million dollars to be raised, and I'm concerned that the fund will not be opened if the school can't raise the money.</p>
<p>What do you guys think: it the fund safe or in danger of running out?</p>
<p>I really want to go... I just have to base a lot of things on financial aid. I'm under 40K per year for income, so I'm supposed to get a full ride, no loans under Odyssey. That's a major reason for me picking Chicago. I'm applying to other places with more secure guarantees as to loans (Emory, MIT...), so I'd like some info about the security of my loan-free package at Chicago.</p>
<p>The donor has agreed to pay the full cost of the scholarships through 2010. I believe the University will raise the necessary funds to maintain it. They are quite good at raising money and this is important to Zimmer.</p>
<p>i’m basically in the same boat financial-aid wise lol, i’m counting on that Odyssey Scholarship or else i’ll probably have to pick elsewhere… i hope it doesn’t run out!</p>
<p>I just checked and there is only about $2.5 million that needs to be raised by the end of 2010 ($35.5 million already raised). I would not worry about it not being funded.</p>
<p>Well, I’m just a senior in HS, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Bottom Line: Don’t worry.</p>
<p>Longer answer is as follows.</p>
<p>In my experience in the non-profit world, money is raised in 2009 for 2010 and then there is a separate campaign in 2010 to raise money for 2011, etc. They don’t raise money in 2009 for say, 2020. </p>
<p>In Chicago’s case, the whole $100 million will be paid if Chicago can match it with donations from other sources (this way the program will be available much longer, not until the initial gift runs out). The first benchmark is raising $38 million by JUNE 2010 (they started May 2007). Right now the website says they are at $35.5 million. I would be shocked if Chicago is not able to raise $2.5 million over the next six months, especially since much more than that is at stake.</p>
<p>K-3, echoing previous posters you should not be concerned! The Odyssey program does not spend all the money raised, rather it is designed to fully fund itself in perpetuity starting in 2023 by using the investment income on the money raised to pay for the scholarships. The program currently provides around around $5.5 mm per year to students. Homer has agreed to pay $3mm per year towards this plus another contingent annual payment of around $2mm per year if the fundraising goals are met. He has designed his gift to make sure the program is permanent. There is zero chance the university will blow this high profile program. For perspective, its last fundraising campaign raised $2.38 billion, $380 mm more than its target.</p>
<p>Like others are saying, don’t worry – I’m on the Odyssey Scholarship, too, and I was worried about the same thing when I was deciding. Being here, though, I would very happily go in debt, were the scholarship to run out. :)</p>
<p>Do hey really mean that I’ll get no loans and no family contribution with income under 40K? My mom owns a house, but it’s not worth much (less than 200K), and she’s unemployed now… my dad isn’t in the picture.</p>
<p>Another question: how does National Merit factor into the aid package? I heard that I’ll get 2K per year with it, but does that help my contribution or is it factored into my university aid?</p>
<p>It seems like packages vary from what is stated… from what they say, I should get a nice deal, but there seems to be a lot of people disappointed with aid judging by some forum comments.</p>
<p>^ I have no idea about your specific questions, but I will say generally the bad rep that Chicago gets for FA is with middle class students. Working class students supposedly are pretty well taken care of. Also, if I remember correctly, some knowledgeable posters on CC were speculating that Nondorf may boost FA packages to increase yield.</p>
<p>Increasing financial aid would be the single best thing Chicago could do to increase yield. I saw a survey of students as to why they turned down U of C and the #1 reason by a large margin was financial aid. A close friend of S1’s wanted desperately to attend Chicago but ended up at second choice Yale because they offered $10,000 more in direct aid.</p>
i hope it doesn’t run out!</p>