Ohio State increases financial aid by $50 million

Colleges and Universities A-Z Ohio State University
1

<p>4-6-2012</p>

<p>Contact: Jim Lynch, (614) 247-4110</p>

<p>Ohio State increases financial aid by $50 million</p>

<p>The Ohio State University today announced a $50 million increase in student financial aid over the next four years. The initiatives include new scholarships and grants that will help additional students attend the university each year.</p>

<p>Ohio State provost Joseph Alutto outlined the initiatives as part of a presentation to the university’s Board of Trustees on a plan to guide the university to become a top ten public comprehensive research university within the next ten years.</p>

<p>The plan includes a new merit scholarship program - Ohio State’s most prestigious yet - and increased grants to financially needy students.</p>

<p>The new scholarship program, “Eminence Scholars,” provides four-year, full ride scholarships, plus a $3,000 one-time stipend to 50 highly qualified students annually. The award is being offered for the first time this year to high-achieving high school seniors.</p>

<p>In addition, the university is increasing aid by one third for students eligible for the university’s “Scarlet and Gray” grants. The increase will allow the university to help additional students, and will boost awards from $3,000 to $4,000. These grants are now available to approximately 7,800 financially qualified incoming freshmen, as well as sophomores, juniors and seniors.</p>

<p>“These are huge, strategic investments that Ohio State is making, and the university is investing in students,” said Dolan Evanovich, vice president for strategic enrollment planning. “With the Eminence Scholarships, we are attracting the best and brightest students to Ohio State. And with the increase in the Scarlet and Gray grants, we are working to attract and retain students, helping to insure their success.”</p>

<p>Award notification letters for both programs have been mailed to students over the last week.</p>

<p>The initiatives will be funded through cost savings and new funding streams that allow Ohio State to invest in student scholarships.</p>

<p>Evanovich says the two initiatives permit Ohio State to fulfill its Land Grant and flagship missions at the same time, and not at the expense of either.</p>

<p>The Eminence Scholarship allows Ohio State to enroll the best students from Ohio and across the country. Forty of the 50 scholarships will go to Ohio high school students, and ten to students from beyond Ohio. Eminence Scholar requirements are rigorous. Those eligible to be considered rank in the top three percent of their graduating classes and have ACT composite scores of 34 or higher. The stipend will help the scholars to design a research project in collaboration with a faculty member, defray the cost of study abroad experience or pursue other opportunities.</p>

<p>In addition to full financial support, Eminence Scholars will benefit from individual advising and mentoring, exposure to research opportunities and help in securing funding, networking opportunities with key university faculty and staff, and special programming, all intended to help recipients develop their talents and launch them toward graduate study, professional school, or the start of an extraordinary career.</p>

<p>The expansion of the Scarlet and Gray grants allows the university to provide access to additional students who are often low- or moderate- income or first in their family to go to college. It provides access to freshmen but also helps upper class students stay enrolled.</p>

<p>The grants will also assist more families with higher incomes than in previous years. For example, last year the average family income eligible for Scarlet and Gray grants stopped at $60,516.With the additional funds, the university will be able to assist a new group of families with average family incomes up to $67,914 (for a family of four with one in college).</p>

<p>For additional information, see: [Student</a> Financial Aid - The Ohio State University](<a href=“http://sfa.osu.edu%5DStudent”>http://sfa.osu.edu)</p>

<p>Founded in 1870, The Ohio State University is a world-class public research university and the leading comprehensive teaching and research institution in the state of Ohio. With more than 56,000 students enrolled at its main Columbus campus, 14 colleges and 170 majors, the university offers its students exceptional breadth and depth of opportunity in the liberal arts, the sciences and the professions. The university awards approximately $100 million in institutional scholarships and grants each year and recently completed a $116 million fundraising campaign for future student support. More than 80 percent of incoming freshman receive financial aid in the form of grants, loans and/or scholarships.</p>

<p>Source: [News</a> Room - The Ohio State University](<a href=“http://www.osu.edu/news/newsitem3385]News”>http://www.osu.edu/news/newsitem3385)</p>

2

<p>OSU needed to do this to remain competitive in attracting AND enrolling the ‘best and brightest’. Based on posts here and personal experience, the university is behind in providing financial assistance, both merit and need based. This should help improve the perception of the school being cash rich and aid poor.</p>

3

<p>OSU pumps $50M into scholarships</p>

<p>By Encarnacion Pyle</p>

<p>The Columbus Dispatch Saturday April 7, 2012 11:11 AM </p>

<p>Ohio State University will increase student scholarship money by $50 million over four years to help attract the brightest students worldwide and to make sure that prospective enrollees aren’t deterred by lack of money.</p>

<p>Provost Joseph A. Alutto announced yesterday that the school will increase merit- and need-based aid as part of a plan to make Ohio State one of the top 10 public research universities in the country.</p>

<p>“While the quality of our student body has increased considerably and our graduation rates have improved, we still lag behind our very best peers,” Alutto said after yesterday’s OSU board of trustees meeting.</p>

<p>To try to surpass those schools, Alutto said, Ohio State has created a 10-year plan to move “ from excellence to eminence.”</p>

<p>In addition to expanding student financial aid, the first phase of the plan calls for these expenditures:</p>

<p>• $2 million to create a second-year dorm experience for sophomores, and to support other “ living-learning” communities in which students who share common interests or academic programs live and learn together. The university plans to build more dormitories and require sophomores to live on campus.</p>

<p>• $10 million to add more tenure-track professors. The goal is to increase the number of faculty members by 8 to 10 percent — about 300 new positions — over the next 10 years at an estimated cost of $300 million.</p>

<p>• $10 million for building improvements.</p>

<p>The money would come from state construction funds, an expected $1.5 billion in cost savings over the next five to 10 years from streamlined services and other cost-shaving measures, and new revenue such as OSU’s partnership with Huntington National Bank. Huntington recently agreed to pay Ohio State $25 million to become the school’s official on-campus bank.</p>

<p>To better compete for students, the university created an “eminent scholars” program to provide 50 full-ride scholarships a year. Each scholarship will cover tuition, fees and room and board, valued at about $28,000.</p>

<p>Students selected as scholars also will be eligible for a one-time payment of $3,000 after their freshman year so they can do research with faculty members or study abroad, said Dolan Evanovich, OSU’s vice president for strategic enrollment.</p>

<p>Ohio State also will increase its need-based “Scarlet and Gray” grants from $3,000 to $4,000 and increase the number of students receiving them by a third — to 7,800 next fall. The additional funds will allow the university to consider children from families with higher incomes than in the past. The cut-off was just over $60,500 a year; it will now be just below $68,000.</p>

<p>“It’s such a huge investment, I’m dancing on air,” Evanovich said.</p>

<p>Ohio State distributes about $100 million in student scholarships and grants each year and recently completed a $116 million fundraising campaign for future student support. Tuition hasn’t been set for next year, but Evanovich said that campus officials are trying to keep from imposing the maximum-allowed increase of 3.5 percent.</p>

<p>The meeting marked the end of Leslie H. Wexner’s second term as trustees chairman. The Limited Brands founder is being succeeded by Robert H. Schottenstein, who is chairman, CEO and president of M/I Homes Inc. Wexner is to continue on the board through 2020, and Schottenstein’s appointment runs through 2014.</p>

<p>Trustees were greeted at their meeting at Longaberger Alumni House on Olentangy River Road by about 200 students and others. They were marching in memory of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot to death by a neighborhood-watch volunteer in a suburb of Orlando, Fla. Some believe that Martin, a black youth, was shot as a result of racial profiling; the man who shot him has said he acted in self-defense.</p>

<p>President E. Gordon Gee invited the group into the meeting, where they asked the trustees to require the university to send out hate-crime alerts and to increase the diversity of its students and faculty members.</p>

<p>Source: [OSU</a> pumps $50M into scholarships | The Columbus Dispatch](<a href=“http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/04/07/osu-pumps-50m-into-scholarships.html]OSU”>http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/04/07/osu-pumps-50m-into-scholarships.html)</p>

4

<p>@sleeponit,</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Great news indeed!! </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>No Kidding!! That is some Ivy League stats there!! lol</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Lower Student:Faculty Ratio!!</p>

<p>Academically, the school is certainly geared towards becoming one of the very best public universities in the nation!!</p>

<p>Go Bucks!! :)</p>

5

<p>What pool were the eminence scholars selected from? Did one need to fill out the special eligibility scholarship form?</p>