The fight for the best college students is like "hand-to-hand combat," and Ohio University will soon have an additional weapon in the fray, OU President Roderick McDavis said.
University officials recently unveiled plans to replace the Gateway scholarship program and to create $75 million in scholarship endowments by 2020.
The current system has worked well since its inception in 2005. But the program's rigid structure broadcasts its criteria to the university's competitors, which affords them a competitive advantage, said Pam Benoit, OU's executive vice president and provost.
The new program, which was developed by OU's Scholarship Task Force, will have an algorithm that will give prospective students personalized scholarship packages, said Craig Cornell, associate provost for enrollment.
"We've had more students say 'yes' because of the new (scholarship) package," McDavis said. "When we know where to spend our dollars, that makes a huge difference."
The program will apply to OU's next freshman class, with award letters detailing the program set to be sent to prospective students beginning in December 2013, Cornell said.
The university's scholarship taskforce, which started meeting last September, is revamping only the Gateway Program and is not touching specialty scholarship programs, like the Manasseh Cutler Scholars Programs, said Cornell, who chairs the taskforce.
OU spent $30,199,287 on scholarships in the 2011-12 school year, the most recent year available, spokeswoman Katie Quaranta said.
The majority of that figure is for undergraduates but OU does not break its scholarship awards down by grade level or campus, she added.
McDavis, Benoit and Cornell pointed to Bowling Green State University as a direct competitor for quality students. BGSU has dozens of scholarships for students with varying test scores, GPAs and abilities from different backgrounds, according to the university's financial aid website.
BGSU awarded more than $30 million in scholarships across the institution last year, according to the university's financial aid website.
The new OU awards - with a name that is yet to be determined - will allow OU officials to better tailor their scholarships to each incoming class, Cornell said. However, the program won't change OU's overall recruiting strategy.
"I don't anticipate a significantly aggressive change because I think our goal is to provide a quality education to all students," Cornell said. "(This program strikes) that balance between merit and need, both of those. ... What we're (working on) tends to be the bread and butter of a scholarship program for the institution."
Cornell said his goal is not to drastically increase the GPAs or test scores of incoming classes, but he believes the new program will let OU provide strong academic students with "a little extra assistance."
Coupled with the taskforce's work, the $75 million OU plans to put in place for scholarships over the next seven years shows an "exceptional dedication" to making OU affordable, Benchoff said.
"(We) want to create more scholarships for deserving students and for the university to make available that $25 million match, that's very uncommon," Benchoff said. "I can't mention another school, college, or university where (they) have taken that step to make that investment."
OU will contribute toward its $25 million commitment to the endowment as donors contribute to the fund, said Stephen Golding, vice president for finance and administration.
The university can begin spinning off the interest on donated dollars to students as soon as individual endowments reach their goal, Benchoff said.
"We do not have to wait until all $75 million is raised until we start giving out scholarships," Benchoff said. "As time marches on, that money will start to flow into the students' hands."
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@WillDrabold
Source: Ohiou
