Posts Tagged ‘college donations’

Hard times are being felt by all colleges right now. The Belt has been cinched and funds are drying up. Many of the students on sharenotes.com have unmet aid and it’s becoming harder for Colleges and Universities to meet that aid.

In a sense desperate times need desperate measures. In one such instance Penn State has initiated a fund raising campaign in which Students accepted into the prestigious Honors College wouldn’t mind donating back the $3,500 merit scholarship that comes with the acceptance. This plea of course is being asked in circumstances in which the financial aid is not necessarily needed for the student to attend, with the caveat that the aid money would then be used to meet the needs of needy students.

Surprisingly this program has worked to great success. Last year the appeal netted 228,000 dollars in money donated back to the school. Money that will in turn be used to assist unmet financial aid needs, helping students to enroll.

Penn state looks to increase the appeals given the success of the program thus far. Which in a sense is a good thing given that some schools are withdrawing from such merit programs as it directs scholarship money to students who may not necessarily be in financial need of such assistance. Creative alternatives such as the Penn program look to keep the Merit recognitions continuing while funneling much needed money to the most needy students. their program looks to be a pseudo symbiosis between the haves and the have not’s in which both parties can benefit.

If anyone on sharenotes.com attends Penn or any other school affected by such programs and would like to comment we’d love to hear your input.