90% merit now vs need-based aid? I had no idea.
They’re basically going to trade some wealthier high-stats students for lower income students who drop out when they can’t pay.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/24/university-kentucky-moving-away-merit-aid
I think 'Bama is something like 100% merit awards vs. 0% fin aid grants.
The idea is to prevent the lower income students from dropping out due to running out of money.
^ right, that’s correct @ucbalumnus . They are going to trade wealthier high-stats students for lower income students who CURRENTLY drop out when they can’t pay but will hopefully stay when increased aid allows them to.
Seems to me that would be the natural progression from using a lot of merit aid to attract better students to improve the quality of the school. At some point, you would like to see the quality of the school improve such that those better students want to go there even without the merit money. No idea whether Kentucky has reached that point.
In our neck of the woods, a fair number of NMSF students have been drawn to UK because, like Bama, they offer basically a full ride for NMSF status. I assume this announcement means a change is coming.
We have a kid at UK because they showed us the money. I have noticed more UK car magnets and stickers in the Chicago area. Still not common, but also not rare. We still get puzzled looks sometimes. Kentucky? But more often than not, someone knows someone whose kid goes there and loves it.
If Illinois is going to send gobs of students to flagships in WI, IA, MO, IN, OH, MI…why not KY? They just have to keep drawing those high stats kids and offer enough money to make the price competitive to UIUC.
Wow. This will upend DS18’s whole thought process. Likely NMF and we thought he would be able to attend UK (our own state flagship) on a full ride Patterson scholarship. How frustrating on a personal front that this is happening now.
I hate to tell UK, but I am afraid they may have fell from the top to way down the list. They may end up completely off the list. Guess they know what they want. Hope they weren’t presuming kids like mine (4.4 weighted/4.0 unweighted GPA, first in his class, 34 ACT, 13 APs, etc.) are still going to show up there and pay full boat when we have better free options on the table (Alabama, etc.).
Let the Kentucky brain drain continue. When these kids leave the state for college, good luck getting them to move back.
Like any business decision (and colleges are big businesses – whether they should be is another story), some people will like it and others will go elsewhere. Presumably the decision was made that the change is in the best interests of the school and the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its residents. More an art than science in terms of that decision. And adjustments are often made as results differ from expectations.
But yes, I would expect they will lose kids who they would otherwise have gotten with the Patterson scholarship as it now exists.
I love the comment we may lose a few NMFs. We had 105 last year.
Yeah, you think? You will be lucky to have 5 after you drop the Patterson scholarship.
Supposedly UK’s goal was to be a top 20 research U by 2020.
They used one of their largest gifts in school history to expand their honors program. I don’t know why they bothered if they aren’t going to recruit these kids anymore.
Roll tide.
^L’Dad: how’s your kid’s jump shot? 
@bluebayou Not quite Wildcat material I am afraid! I leave the porch light on every night, but Coach Cal hasn’t knocked on our door yet.
@LOUKYDAD , be sure to check out U Oklahoma. They treat their NMFs very well. Pretty campus, too.
Edit: Over 850 NMFs currently enrolled.
http://www.ou.edu/admissions/nationalmerit.html
Where does the money come from in these state schools that buy high stats? Is it proven that once the money stops the effect holds? (lets just consider the full tuition type, not the smaller partials). Not just UK but U Oak and Bama? There isn’t any taxpayer money in this game?
I have to think that state flagships that are offering big merit to attract high achieving kids, whether in-state or OOS, are thinking not only about improving their student profile but about retaining some percentage of those high achievers once they graduate. My daughter went to Alabama on a full tuition merit scholarship, and she is staying in Alabama. One less productive citizen for Illinois, but one more for Alabama.
It sounds like KY could go in the opposite direction with this change. That doesn’t mean it’s the wrong move - states (and their flagships) with limited budgets have to prioritize, and giving an educational opportunity to lower income students is certainly an admirable goal.
Notice they want to have SIXTY FIVE percent need-based aid. Meaning there’ll still be 35% merit aid. So, Honors College students and NMF’s are likely safe. The small scholarships will probably go - and the merit for low-ish stats also (like the scholarships for ACT25/SAT 1200 and HS GPA 3.3). UK is likely to be either instate students (all who qualify for that level of academics will be able to attend regardless of their parents’ financial means, provided they live instate) OR high stats students who’d be full pay elsewhere (few will qualify but all who do will be top-notch and will receive top-notch awards, and this will be available regardless of residency.)
Based on comments of the Provost quoted in the article, stating that they are expecting to lose some NMFs, I would assume the Patterson scholarship (automatic full ride) is going away.
Kentucky has a program called Governors Scholars. About a 1000 or so KY high school juniors every year are chosen to attend a summer program on a college campus between their junior and senior years. Once they are Governors Scholars, all the in-state publics give significant automatic scholarships to these kids, including UK. Full tuition typically. UK currently does also, but has been raising the ACT bar to get their top award (Presidential scholarship, which is full tuition). Used to be 28 at UK, but they raised it to 31 a couple of years ago. As they raised the requirement a lot more Governors Scholar kids who didn’t have the ACT score have been ending up at the directionals, but still I bet there are significantly more Governors Scholars at UK than NMFs. I wonder how the Presidential scholarship will be affected by these changes. This is still a merit rather than need based award, albeit for instate kids only.
@LOUKYDAD look at Texas Tech, FULL RIDE for NMF, Big 12, also look At Oklahoma State, I think they may have a Full ride also.
I doubt UK is giving merit aid to kids with stats that low anyway, unless they’ve got some exceptional ECs or have some other hook.
http://www.uky.edu/financialaid/scholarship-incoming-freshmen
3.30 / 26 = $1,500 per year for residents
3.00 / 25 = $7,000 per year for non-residents (non-resident tuition surcharge is $15,000 per year)
Wording seems to imply that they are automatic but first come first served until the money runs out.