How Stingy is Arkansas With Scholarships?

Hoggirl
Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:46:15 +0000

This is one of my HUGE pet peeves about the University of Arkansas comapred to other comparable (SEC) schools - there is generally NO clear guidance as to what the qualifications are for receiving the various scholarship amounts listed on their scholarship page for freshmen. The only exception to this is for National Merit which indicates a clear award of $10,000 per year. My observations have been that a student needs a 32 on the ACT in order to receive that $8,000 per year scholarship - sorry I forget what all the names of them are. If you compare the scholarship page of University of Arkansas to that of Alabama or Ole Miss you will see that those two schools are very cut and dry about how much merit money you will receive. They have charts where you can plug and chug your GPA and test scores and see EXACTLY how much money you are eligible for. Other than National Merit, the U of A’s vague and cryptic wording for any level of scholarship is something along the lines of “highest qualified in the applicant pool.”

Are you in-state or out-of-state? If you are in-state you can also apply (and will receive) the Arkansas Lottery Scholarship. Sadly, that program has unbelievably low standards for awarding money and the amount awarded has dropped since it was initially launched. If you are in-state you generally need a 32 on the ACT (unless you are National Merit) to apply for the Governor’s Distinguished Scholarship (GDS) which is worth $10,000 per year. This program is administered by the Department of Higher Education, and every year there is concern as to the level of funding and how many students will receive this scholarship. There is an additional scholarship provided by the program for the two highest scoring/most qualified applicants from each county in Arkansas. This bifurcated system is also another pet peeve of mine. My ds was awarded both a fellowship (of $12,500) and the GDS, though he opted to matriculate elsewhere. But really, it is impossible to get the entire Cost of Attendance covered at the U of A without piecing together scholarships. The GDS is nice in that it can be used in any college in the state, but it irks me to no-end that our state’s top students have to jump through so many hoops to get a decent level of merit aid.

Sorry. That kind of turned into a rant. The good news is that a 28 will get you into the Honors College (though I am not sure of the GPA requirement). The bad news is that in order to remain in the Honors College you will have to maintain a 3.5.