The cost of going to college can be a deal-breaker. Even with Pell grants, scholarships, and some student loans, the overwhelming ticket price of higher education can be a major deterrent. This is especially true for minorities, first-generation college students, and those coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds. There is both a legitimate concern over what that college degree will cost as well as a cultural barrier that often tells these students a college education is just not for them (both within their circles and outside them).
But what if colleges were to take away cost as a factor ― completely? Throughout the country there are schools that are combating low diversity numbers with a novel idea: full-ride scholarships for those who qualify.
Now full-ride scholarships are certainly nothing new. They’ve been given out to promising students and those in financial need, and athletes for decades. What’s different about this new slew of full-ride initiatives is that they acknowledge a lack of diversity and are targeting minorities, women and underserved students.
The University of Michigan recently rolled out a full-ride scholarship program that targets students as young as 7th grade. The Wolverine Pathways initiative seeks to find students of academic promise from racial and socioeconomic disadvantage and give them a chance to earn a full ride to the university by the time they graduate from high school. Students will be paired with tutors and mentors in three academic sessions per year. If they complete the sessions successfully and are then accepted to the university, they will be given a scholarship for four years.
It’s certainly needed at Michigan, where only 12.8 percent of the 2015 freshman class are minorities. The school saw a dip from the height of its minority representation (13.8 in 2015) after affirmative action was struck down for college admissions. Since then, the university claims it has looked for ways to boost its diversity ― and the Wolverine Pathways program could finally do just that.
Arizona State University also announced a full-ride program for new MBA students in the fall of 2016 that is designed to improve diversity. Based on the student’s residency, the scholarship could be valued as high as $94,000.
Potential pitfalls
