Adopt NPPS as the basis for your scholarship guidelines
The cost of higher education often prevents individuals from low-income families from earning a college degree. Students from the lowest socioeconomic quartile are up to eight times less likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree than those from the highest socioeconomic quartile, and government grants and scholarships have not kept pace with tuition costs.
Adjust your scholarship and grant award eligibility to accommodate families living below the NPPS.
To get started:
Determine the number of your students that live below the NPPS.
Identify funding sources through endowments or gifts from alumni to fund scholarships.
Simplify the financial aid process and ensure estimation of fees also includes living expenses and miscellaneous fees.
Communicate updated eligibility standards and available types of aid.
Best Practices / Innovative Programs
Rutgers University-Camden implemented its Bridging the Gap grant that closes the gap between federal, state, and institutional sources of financial support and the balance of tuition and the general campus fee. They automatically apply the Bridging the Gap grant to these remaining costs after any other need-based federal, state, and/or institutional aid have been applied, based on the following family adjusted gross income (AGI):
* $0 - 59,999: 100% of the difference
* $60,000 - 79,999: 75% of the difference
* $80,000 - 100,000: 50% of the difference
The University of Texas at Austin established a $160 million endowment from a distribution of the state’s Permanent University Fund that will generate money for financial assistance covering all tuition and fees for students from families with annual incomes less than $65,000 a year.