The merits of merit-based aid

Many states, including Indiana, currently offer full-ride or otherwise decreased-tuition scholarships to local high school students with high grade-point averages or other merits. These merit-based scholarships generally only apply to state colleges and universities and are intended to keep the brightest students in state schools. Often, the income of applicants isn’t considered. \nBecause these scholarship programs are based on merit alone, many of the recipients don’t need the money. In New Jersey, for example, recipients of the state-run Student Tuition Assistance Reward Scholarship averaged yearly family incomes that fell only about $3,000 below the statewide median income. Critics of the program have pointed out that in order to pay for the scholarship students to attend college, the colleges have had to cut costs in other areas.\nAt Rutgers University, officials report that more than half the scholarship students this year don’t qualify for need-based aid. \n“What’s happening at Rutgers is that we have now ended up with many students who are poorer – and, in many cases, have better academic records – who are subsidizing STARS students, and that seems unfair,” said Rutgers’ Vice President of University Budgeting Nancy Winterbauer in an interview with the New Jersey Star-Ledger. The number of middle-class and upper-class students getting scholarships, though, might be necessary to keep these students in state. Since they can afford college, many of them would leave the state if there were no scholarship involved. “When I got this (scholarship), it made me look at more state schools,” said Courtney Flynn, 17, in an interview with The Boston Globe. In Massachusetts, about 20 percent of the total scholarships awarded each year are used. That might be 20 percent more students who wouldn’t have stayed in state without the extra incentive. \nThough it’s a shame if states are losing funds from having to provide for too many scholarship recipients, it’s still important to keep bright students in state. We need to use the opportunity for free tuition to encourage not only students choosing between schools, but also students who are still in middle school and high school. Even if these students do not ultimately choose to attend the state university, the whole system improves simply from the added incentive of the possibility of getting free or discounted tuition. Especially as tuition rates go through the roof, this incentive would only grow with time.\nPerhaps programs like the one in New Jersey could be scaled back a bit, especially if colleges are considering raising general tuition simply in order to pay for scholarship students. It is unfair to put a significant financial burden on poorer students, but there is no reason to eliminate or reduce significantly the amount of merit-based scholarships. Perhaps the amount of money given or the standards for qualification must change to accommodate the financial situation. Regardless, what bright students bring to universities in the form of work quality and research is definitely worth the state’s money.