In-State College Tuition Grant for DC Residents?

[Anonymous]

I've heard about this generally, but do not know the details. Anyone in the know, could you either direct me to an appropriat website, or help answer the following:

1) How does this work procedurally (i.e., checks sent to out of state school or the student or some other method of payment/credit?).

2) Can this affect admissions in any way? In other words, are you treated like an in-state resident for admissions purposes?

3) How long must you be a DC resident before the benefit kicks in?

4) It applies to all out of state public institutions (i.e., state schools), right?

5) It is simply a matter of applying, and assuming you are a DC resident with a student in college at an out of state public school, you qualify?

6) Does your family income matter?

7) It is a flat rate of 10,000 (assuming tuition is over 10,000) or a percentage of the tuition?

8) Will this program expire at any point?

9) Must my children be graduates of DC public schools?

10) Should I move to DC when it comes time for dear children to head off to college?!

11) More serious question, if dear child started and say, U of Wisconsin this year, but we were MD residents this year, but we moved to DC this summer, can we ever qualify for this grant?

12 Any strings attached (repayment, agree to live in DC after graduation, etc.?).

Sounds too good to be true.

[Anonymous]

See - http://www.osse.dc.gov/seo/cwp/view,a,1226,q,536770,seoNav_GID,1511,seoNav,|31238|,.asp

Based on my experience from a while ago, with a girl I mentored who was a DC resident and went to a florida state school, I answered a few of the questions below.



2) Can this affect admissions in any way? In other words, are you treated like an in-state resident for admissions purposes?

No. You are still out of state for admissions purposes.


4) It applies to all out of state public institutions (i.e., state schools), right?

Yes. I believe so.


6) Does your family income matter?

I don't believe so.


9) Must my children be graduates of DC public schools?

I don't believe so.

10) Should I move to DC when it comes time for dear children to head off to college?!

Up to you. But not exactly the way this benefit is meant to be used.

[Anonymous]

I believe the student must have lived in DC for at least 12 months before beginning his/her freshman year.

http://seo.dc.gov/seo/frames.asp?doc=/seo/lib/seo/news_room/2002/april/college_act2002.pdf&group=1508

Agree completely with PP on point (10).

[Anonymous]

I seem to recall reading that an income cap was placed on the tuition grant program -- but it was pretty high. $500K, maybe? Didn't see mention of it on the city's website, though.

[Anonymous]

As I recall this program was extended by Congress through 2011. (Hoping it will be renewed then cuz that's when dd will start college.) It pays for the first $10,000 over in-state tuition. Others can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it started out as a program for schools in MD and VA and other states thought that they should also be able to participate so it was extended across the country. I believe there is also $2500 to go towards private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

I don't know how long you have to live in DC to qualify (but speaking as a resident who still has no vote in Congress, please don't move here just to get that benefit) but I don't think you have to go to DC public school to qualify. The main reason we have this is because we don't have an adequate state university system. Whether a student went to public or private secondary school should be irrelevant. But I should doublecheck that.

[Anonymous]

There's been a great deal of effort to eliminate this benefit or cap the income at a lower level. The reason for this is that the little analysis that's been done seems to indicate that it's mostly white, upper-middle-class kids who have been benefitting from it. I'd look into it further, though it seems hard to get information on it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I don't want to over expose what I think is an excellent program. But it does seem that the DC govt is either not interested or unable to provide more information on the program, its numbers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's been a great deal of effort to eliminate this benefit or cap the income at a lower level. The reason for this is that the little analysis that's been done seems to indicate that it's mostly white, upper-middle-class kids who have been benefitting from it. I'd look into it further, though it seems hard to get information on it.

I frankly thought part of the motiviating force behind this was to ensure that the white, upper-middle class kids had a real State U option. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

I think it is to ensure that *all* DC residents have an opportunity to attend public institutions of higher learning at in-state costs.

Here are some stats off the DC web-site:

Fact Update

* Of the DCTAG 2000 - 2001 freshman class, 38% graduated, of the DCTAG 2001 - 2002 freshman class, 36% graduated. The national average for low-income, minority students is 47%.

The below information represents data collected as of the school year 2005 - 2006:

*
The DCTAG program provided $30.5 million to more than 4,700 students.
*
38% of DCTAG recipients were the first in their family to attend college.
*
68% of DCTAG awards were provided to students with very low or low income levels.
*
67% of DCTAG awards were provided to District of Columbia Public School students.
*
79% of DCTAG students attended public colleges and universities.
*
Females received 59% of DCTAG awards and males received 41%.
*
Full-time students received over 90% of DCTAG awards.
*
The District government provides $3 million annually for students through the DC Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership program (DCLEAP), a 5 to 1 match to federal funding.

Student Enrollment

*
College enrollment of District Public School graduates has doubled since DCTAG was launched in the 2000 - 2001 school year.
*
DCTAG eligible applicants have increased 49% since DCTAG was launched in the school year 2000 - 2001 growing from 2,835 in 2000 - 2001 to 5,791 in school year 2005 - 2006.

[Anonymous]

In 04 someone published a study of the program: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=579805#PaperDownload