UI awards students more than $24 million in scholarships
Although the end of August is most notable for the start of classes, it is also the time when the University of Idaho will disperse the $24 million worth of scholarships that will be awarded to student accounts for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Dan Davenport, director of Financial Aid, said the scholarships students receive through the university are included in their individual financial aid packages and are dispersed evenly every semester.
“We can combine university scholarships with federal programs and state scholarships to put together a complete financial aid packet for students,” he said. “We try to make the packets as helpful as possible and provide students with choices when it comes to financing their education.”
Davenport said $24 million is the amount of money given to students from the university alone, and said the number does not include federal scholarships, grants or loans.
The money that backs the scholarships provided by the university comes from a few different sources but the most prominent is donors, Davenport said.
“We have a lot of donors who either give money to the university or contribute to an endowment fund that has already been established,” he said. “We take the earnings from that money and create different scholarships to award.”
Davenport said the scholarships funded by donors or the ones specific to an academic department often have criteria placed upon them.
“A donor usually places criteria on the scholarships they’ve funded to decide who is eligible to receive it,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll go to someone in a certain academic area or someone from a certain community or sometimes they’ll be really general.”
The two others sources in addition to donors are out-of-state tuition waivers for non-residents and institutional funds the university has specifically set aside.
“We’re allowed to partially waive the cost of out-of-state tuition for non-resident students, and so the $24 million includes the amount of tuition we’re waiving for the year,” Davenport said. “What also contributes to that number is the university sets aside a budget to create scholarships with institutional dollars –– those mostly go to Idaho residents.”
Davenport said university scholarships are primarily divided into three categories: resident, non-resident and transfer students.
Tristan Ward, an Environmental Science major, is a recipient of the Vandal Gold Scholarship, one of the academic merit scholarships awarded to Idaho residents. He said the money came as a surprise to him.
“I chose the university because I really liked the school,” Ward said. “When I found out I’d be receiving this scholarship for $1,500 a semester, I was completely shocked.”
Ward, who will be receiving the scholarship for the second year in a row, said the funds come as a relief to his family.
“When I was born, my parents promised that they’d help me get through college, but it’s not always easy for them,” Ward said. “This scholarship relieves a lot of stress for them and takes away some of the financial burden.”
While scholarships can serve as a means of attracting high achieving students to the university, the most important part of scholarships is that they help students afford school, Davenport said.
“Scholarships are the most critical part of our financial aid program,” Davenport said. “They help students and their families pay the cost of college and gives everyone a chance to have an education, and that’s what matters above all else.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]