One year after UT announced its Guarantee program, the first class of 408 Blue and Gold Scholars will officially begin classes today.
Last year, UT promised to cover the cost of tuition and general fees for high school students from Ohio’s six largest cities, left over after any federal aid they received through the UT Guarantee.
This fall, incoming freshman from the UT Guarantee program were
recruited from 21 cities in Ohio including Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland, Canton, Akron and Cincinnati.
The UT Guarantee, Blue and Gold Scholarship was awarded to a total of 408 incoming freshmen for the fall 2009 semester. Through this scholarship, 151 students were recruited from Toledo and 108 students came from Cleveland.
The 408 students who received the Blue and Gold Scholarship had to apply for admission before Jan. 5, 2009, file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid by April 1, 2009, display eligibility for a Pell Grant and have a minimum cumulative high school
grade point average of 3.0.
On average, UT paid $3,326 toward tuition and general fees for each of the 408 students who received the Blue and Gold Scholarship.
Even though UT suffered an $8.8 million budget shortfall for this school year, Vice President for External Affairs Larry Burns is confident UT will gain money from the UT Guarantee program..
“We’re factoring in the Pell Grant, plus many of these young men and women will be living in our residence buildings, the program doesn’t cover that,” he said.
Burns said the net revenue the UT Guarantee will bring in is about $4 million, which
is a combination of the amount of money received from the federal government for Pell Grants and the Ohio College Opportunity Grant. According to a press release by the Department of Education in July, President Obama increased the Pell Grant this year by $819.
“When you add all that up and include the average scholarship the student may receive from another source, the program still provides a total revenue of over $4 million,” Burns said.
According to Burns, the amount of revenue the UT Guarantee program will bring in for the 2010-11 school year will be based on the retention rates. Burns estimated the program will be able to bring in even more money to UT for the next academic school year.
“Based on the retention rate of these students, it can bring in over $11 million,” Burns said.
In order to ensure the success of UT Guarantee students, each student who receives
the Blue and Gold scholarship will be a participant of the Rocket to Rocket mentorship program.
“Each Blue and Gold Scholar will have a mentor who is an upper classman who will mentor each student and then, people like myself and others will be in charge of the student mentor,” he said.
Burns said the mentorship program is essential to retaining the Blue and Gold Scholarship recipients.
“If they don’t graduate, we’re not improving the human condition,” he said.
“It’s been proven over and over and over that the first 90 days of college are critical for success. We really are concentrating on the first year. Then we’re going to ask the freshmen to be rocket mentors when they are sophomores or juniors,” he said.
Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services Kevin Kucera said he has faith in the Blue and Gold Scholars and is confident they will succeed at UT.
“I’ve had a lot of interaction with these students, especially when we went out to the high school to talk to these students, and the sense of enthusiasm these students have and their academics is very strong,” Kucera said.
Kucera said the students coming to UT through the UT Guarantee program are a very promising bunch.
“There are 32 freshmen coming into the engineering program and their ACT composite score is a 22.6. Overall, the students have a grade point average of 3.54 so these students have a profile for academic success,” Kucera said.
The college with the highest number of freshmen with the Blue and Gold Scholarship is the College of Arts and Sciences with 128 students.
The College of Pharmacy and the College of Engineering will be home to the students
with the highest average GPA out of the 408 students, which is 3.54.
The average GPA of the 408 students is 3.46, and they have an average ACT composite score of 19.4.
“The fact that they are going to have this mentor program, and the financial help with this Blue and Gold Scholarship, and the level of enthusiasm is promising for these students,” Kucera said. “I think that is going to be a three prong formula for success.”
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