Out-of-state scholarship programs are being redesigned to provide incoming students with a clear understanding of the awards they receive.

Scholarships for out of state students will all be combined, and have the same eligibility requirements for things like standardized test scores and grade point average. The new program model will take effect in the fall 2020 semester.

“It’s going to be one program, and it will [have the same requirements] for renewal,” Anissa Strickland, director of the university scholarships office, said. “That’s a benefit for our students in that it’s easier to see it represented as one scholarship instead of broken up into multiple scholarships that have different eligibility criteria.”

Current out of state students will not see any changes in their scholarship awards, Strickland said.

“For the students who are here currently … nothing is changing for them,” she said. “If you’re a current student, you do not need to worry about your out of state scholarships being affected by a change that is starting with the new freshman class of 2020.

With the current scholarship model, the eligibility criteria are different for each scholarship, Strickland, said. These scholarships stack on top of each other if the students meet all of the eligibility requirements.

For incoming freshmen and transfer students living outside of Ohio, that will no longer be the case. Instead, the scholarships will be condensed under one set of eligibility criteria.

“So, we have one scholarship program for incoming freshman for fall of 2020 who are residents of Ohio called the Academic Achievement Award,” Strickland said, “and we have another scholarship program for out of state students called the President’s Achievement Award.”

An incoming freshman from any state outside of Ohio may be eligible for the President’s Achievement Award.

Contact Zaria Johnson at [email protected].