Want to endow a scholarship for students that don't get good grades

[Anonymous]

I'm able and willing to endow a scholarship at the university I attended. It was an engineering program and my grades were just so-so, though I did my best. I think this is an underserved constituency. My idea is to set up a scholarship which the university would administer that would restrict aid to those with a grade point average between 2.0 and 3.0 (on a 4-point scale). Does this make sense?

[Anonymous]

So you are disincentivizing doing well in school?

[Anonymous]

I don't think you should indicate a lower threshold for grades just leave it open to all students. Clearly indicate that effort and need are the top factors and grades will not be taken into account in the determination.

I'm sure they have a form or guidance for you to follow.

And, from another A/B student, thank you. Not everyone can get straight As even with their absolute best efforts.

[Anonymous]

Didn't David Letterman do this for Ball State?

[Anonymous]

So what would be the positive qualities that would be used to judge who should get the scholarship? Why not just make that the requirement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think you should indicate a lower threshold for grades just leave it open to all students. Clearly indicate that effort and need are the top factors and grades will not be taken into account in the determination.

I'm sure they have a form or guidance for you to follow.

And, from another A/B student, thank you. Not everyone can get straight As even with their absolute best efforts.

+1
I feel exactly the same way. I think many students would be relieved to find a scholarship resource like this.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. My daughter has learning disabilities and despite working hard does not often get A's in college.

[Anonymous]

While effort and need could lead to a fine scholarship recipient, and would most likely end up being some of the criteria, I wonder if you can go further.

My first thought was something like, each semester to give the scholarship to the student whose grades improved the most from the previous semester.
That would cut out the straight A students because they can never improve.

Another idea would be to put the names of the middle 50% or from the 10 th to 50 th percentile in a hat and draw the winner.
I like the random idea because I wouldn't want the winner to be chosen just because they are outgoing and so all the professors know their name.

I think there are several ways you could run the scholarship to help the winner round out their college experience in ways the middle of the class usually don't get to do.
I know I benefited as an undergraduate from winning a summer research experience budget. I got a $1k stipend and $1k to spend for the lab back when grad students were getting $1k to teach a summer lab section.
As part of the scholarship/summer research, you could require the student to give a presentation to the department in late August to help them practice showing off. Something often neglected in the middle ranks of engineering.

Another possibility would be to have the scholarship recipient win free tutoring the next semester. That might allow you to have two winners because you could pick a grad student winner who was paid to tutor as well.
I think if you had the tutoring set up for 30 minutes every day it could reinforce the idea of not falling behind and would help the middle of the road grad student review as well.
I'm sure you would need a prof to oversee this, but it could be relatively low budget and scaled to include several pairs without breaking the bank.

Good luck, I really hope you can get this to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm able and willing to endow a scholarship at the university I attended. It was an engineering program and my grades were just so-so, though I did my best. I think this is an underserved constituency. My idea is to set up a scholarship which the university would administer that would restrict aid to those with a grade point average between 2.0 and 3.0 (on a 4-point scale). Does this make sense?

lol, no.

so if i can get 3.1 but need 3.0 to get the money, i should f-up my exam?

[Anonymous]

I think the idea is good, but the implementation needs work. Why not do it based on income and an essay? You can use the essay to choose the student who reminds you of yourself when you were young.

[Anonymous]

I think it is fabulous idea. My DS and DD work really hard but have some difficulties getting all As. This would be an incentive for hard workers. I think you need to set up some criteria though, talk to University about it. Which University if I may ask? My DS applied to Delaware that has a good engineering program.

[Anonymous]

This a great idea. I was a solid B/B-/C student, but went to a call college that focused on experiential learning (Elon) and am now quite successful with my business and family. A scholarship for students who aren't all A's would be a great help to many kids. I admire your ability to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the idea is good, but the implementation needs work. Why not do it based on income and an essay? You can use the essay to choose the student who reminds you of yourself when you were young.

Why not do it on just an essay? My parents made a lot of money, and I was a C student, but I was a good writer, and could have used the scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your thoughts. I'll consider all suggestions.

- OP

[Anonymous]

I can't say I'm in a position to do this now, but, I have some interest in doing something like it in my will.

OP, would you mind posting anything you learn during the process that could help people who want to follow your lead?

Thanks