UND officials Wednesday announced a new scholarship available this fall for entering freshmen who scored 24 or higher on the ACT.
That's the average score for admitted students under the school's stricter admissions standards implemented two years ago.
The scholarship will give $1,000 per year to students who meet ACT and other requirements, including:
-- At least a 3.0 high school grade point average.
-- Living in a UND residence hall their freshman year.
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-- Participating in at least one university-approved extracurricular activity every semester they receive scholarship money.
Students can continue to receive the scholarship money for as many as four years.
To continue receiving the scholarship money, students must:
-- Maintain a 3.0 or higher cumulative grade point average at UND.
-- Live in a residence hall or in a fraternity or sorority their sophomore year.
-- Complete at least 12 academic credits every semester.
Two goals of the scholarship are to increase campus enrollment and to raise the academic quality of entering students, UND President Charles Kupchella said.
Student enrollment at the university has slipped in the past three years after several years of dramatic rises.
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The university also hopes to increase student success and retention rates by requiring students to live on campus for two years and to be involved in student activities, said Bob Boyd, UND vice president for student and outreach services.
"Students who do the best are usually the ones that are most engaged with the university," Boyd said. "The students who are most at risk are the ones who go from the residence hall to the classroom and back to the residence hall and aren't involved in the university community."
The scholarship is called the "Community of Learners Scholarship."
In a news conference Wednesday, Kupchella linked the new scholarship with several other initiatives to raise student performance, including UND's presidential scholarships for students with ACT scores of 29 and higher, and a new scholarship for "late blooming" academic achievers funded by the (Ralph and Betty) Engelstad Family Foundation.
The university estimates 500 to 600 entering freshmen will qualify for the scholarship this fall, Kupchella said.
The university has not estimated how many students will be eligible for the scholarship in coming years when recipients will populate every undergraduate academic level, Kupchella said. Some details of the scholarship program may be modified over time, he said.
The scholarship initially will be funded by reallocating internal money, Kupchella said, but ultimately a large portion of it will be paid for with interest on donated money managed by the university's endowment.
The university hasn't yet determined where the internal money will come from to fund the first years of the scholarship, Kupchella said, but he's confident the university can foot the bill. Some portion of the scholarship's cost will be offset by increasing enrollment, he said.
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The scholarship will replace any other UND honors scholarship a student has been offered, unless that scholarship exceeds the Community of Learners scholarship's $1,000 value, such as a presidential scholarship, enrollment officials said.
The scholarship will not replace any scholarships or waivers from particular university departments, including athletics, or any need-based tuition waivers or scholarships from agencies and groups external to the university, officials said.
For more information about the scholarship, log on to: www.go.und.edu/better/ . To search UND's more than 200 officially recognized student organizations, log on to: www.union.und.edu/involvement/studentorgs/directory.htm .
Marks reports on higher education. Reach him at (701) 780-1105, (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or jmarks@gfherald.com .
