College Admission Help

College Scholarship and College Grant Money Scarce

By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer


As she prepares to go to college next year, Muskogee High School senior Sherece Jones is on the prowl for whatever scholarships or financial aid she can find.
“The hard part is not finding scholarships,” she said. “The hard part is actually getting scholarships.”
MHS senior counselor Montie Montgomery sees the hardship, observing “the biggest challenge is that the competition is fierce.”
Competing for scholarships or any financial aid could be especially fierce for those needing financial aid based on need, not merit.
Montgomery said most MHS students fall in both categories — getting financial aid based on need as well as merit.
“If you don’t get the ACT scores or grades, you’re not going to get the scholarships,” she said. “The only things that would be based on need would be federal-based — your grants or your loans. Even the (Academic Competitiveness Grant) is based on merit, but you have to first qualify for the Pell grant. And sometimes, people don’t realize that financial aid also includes loans.”
Jones said she hasn’t started applying for scholarships, but has applied to several places to get financial aid.
She said she hopes to obtain a president’s leadership class scholarship at Northeastern State University, where she plans to major in elementary education. The $5,610, four-year scholarship is awarded to seniors who show outstanding leadership capabilities and a strong academic record and who have attended the school’s presidential leadership class.
“I’ve been active in lots of clubs,” Jones said, listing the MHS student council, ecology club, Go Green and the Junior Classical League among them.
“I’m not going to be in the top 10 percent of the class, but my grades aren’t horrible.”
Having two older siblings in college also helps, she said. “The more kids you have in college, the more likely you are to get money.”
Not everyone seems to struggle as much, though.
Hilldale High School senior Stephen Bias said he has worked with his counselor and discovered “scholarships are pretty easy to find.”
“There’s one in which you can customize your own tuxedo for the prom,” he said. Bias said he did not seek that scholarship, but knows of a Hilldale student who tried. “He made a tuxedo out of duct tape.”
“Most of the scholarships our counselors are finding are pretty reliable, not scams or anything,” Bias said. “Our counselors know all the trustworthy Web sites.”
Montgomery said students and parents often are intimidated by the number of forms to fill out.
“Seniors almost need a secretary, there are so many things to apply for,” she said.
Jones said she had to initiate her own college and scholarship search. She said that while counselors didn’t always bring scholarships to her attention, “they definitely helped when you asked.”
Montgomery said counselors held three financial aid workshops for students and parents.
“We held them morning and evening and we had all the senior classes coming,” she said.
At a goal-setting workshop earlier this month, Muskogee Board of Education members said parents need to be made aware of scholarships available to their kids. School Superintendent Mike Garde said that while MHS has a legacy of having academic all-staters and national merit scholars, this year’s senior class has neither.
Board member John Barton said many parents were not informed about the PSAT test students needed to take to qualify as National Merit Scholars.
Montgomery said 51 students took the PSAT test in October.
“You have to order these tests in the spring and make a list based on teacher recommendations and you have to look at test scores and ACT scores,” she said. “Newsletters went out to parents explaining the tests. Every student in the National Honor Society received a letter about the test.”
Both Jones and Bias are taking advantage of the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program, or OHLAP, in which students from families making $50,000 or less work their way toward a scholarship by maintaining a grade point average of at least a 2.5, or C-plus. Students start the program in eighth-, ninth- or 10th-grade, and home-schooled students may start the program at ages 13, 14 or 15.
Bias said he’s been maintaining a 3.0 grade point average and passing all the core classes.
Oktaha High School Counselor Kathy Barrett said OHLAP gives an opportunity to a lot of students who would “basically fall through the cracks.”
“A lot of kids get scholarships to go along with their OHLAP,” she said.
MHS counselors said 47 MHS 2008 graduates had OHLAP scholarships and 22 members of this year’s freshman class are in the program.
“I start talking to eighth-graders every spring when I visit their schools to do freshmen pre-enrollment and during our enrollment festival,” said MHS freshmen counselor Micki Akard. “And I see an increased interest after the freshman years. A lot of students are shocked when they see the cost of college.”
A variety of proposals in the Oklahoma Legislature could either broaden or limit the number of students who get OHLAP scholarships, according to Bryce Fair, associate vice chancellor for Scholarships and Grants. For example, students receiving the award for the first time in the 2011 school year cannot come from families making more than $100,000 at the time the student goes to college. Fair said the $100,000 cap is a “second income check” in case students’ families experience substantial income gains while the student is in the program. He said there are no such limits for current students. He said pending legislation could delay implementation of that limit to school year 2013.
A proposal in the House of Representatives would create a sliding scale tied to income and number of children.
Currently, only children in families with total income of $50,000 or less are eligible. Under the bill, children in a family of four with an adjusted gross income of $57,000 would qualify.
Another House proposal would change the initial OHLAP state scholarship cap from “taxable and non-taxable” income to “adjusted gross income.”
Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education spokesman Ben Hardcastle said OHLAP is a hybrid of programs based on need and those based on merit.
“Because of the $50,000 income limit, the focus is for middle and lower income families,” he said.
The state allocates $54 million for OHLAP, and $19 million for the Oklahoma Tuition Aid Grant, which Hardcastle said is based strictly on need.
Hardcastle said most of the federal money is needs based.
“The largest source of aid is student loans,” he said.
Jones said she’s confident she’ll get help for college and that she won’t be alone.
“I think everyone who wants to go to college are finding ways to go, even if they must take out loans,” she said.


College Scholarship and College Grant Money Scarce