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College taking another look at values of merit-based aid Goo

游客2024-03-02  5
问题                 College taking another look at values of merit-based aid
    Good grades and high test scores still matter — a lot — to many colleges as they award financial aid.
    But with low-income students projected to make up an ever-larger share of the college-bound population in coming years, some schools are re-examining whether that aid, typically known as "merit aid", is the most effective use of precious institutional dollars.
    George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for example, said last week that it would cut the value of its average merit scholarships by about one-third and reduce the number of recipients(接受者), pouring the savings, about $2.5 million, into need-based aid. Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., made a similar decision three years ago.
    Now, Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., says it will phase out merit scholarships altogether. No current merit-aid recipients will lose their scholarships, but need-based aids alone will be awarded beginning with students entering in fall 2008.
    Not all colleges offer merit aid; generally, the more selective a school, the less likely it is to do so. Harvard and Princeton, for example, offer generous need-based packages, but many families who don’t meet need eligibility(资格) have been willing to pay whatever they must for a big-name school.
    For small regional colleges that struggle just to fill seats, merit aid can be an important revenue-builder because many recipients still pay enough tuition dollars over and above the scholarship amount to keep the institution running.
    But for rankings-conscious schools in between, merit aid has served primarily as a tool to recruit top students and to improve their academic profile. "They’re trying to buy students", says Skidmore College economist Sandy Baum.
    Studies show merit aid also tends to benefit disproportionately students who could afford to enroll without it.
    "As we look to the future, we see a more pressing need to invest in need-based aid", says Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid at Hamilton, which has offered merit scholarships for 10 years. During that time, it rose in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the best liberal arts colleges, from 25 to 17.
    Merit aid, which benefited about 75 students a year, or about 4% of its student body, at a cost of about $1 million a year, "served us well", Inzer says, but "to be discounting the price for families that don’t need financial aid doesn’t feel right any more".
    Need-based aid remains by far the largest share if all student aid, which includes state, federal and institutional grants. But merit aid, offered primarily by school and states, is growing faster, both overall and at the institutional level.
    Between 1995—1996 and 2003—2004, institutional merit aid alone increased 212%, compared with 47% for need-based grants. At least 15 states also offer merit aid, typically in a bid to enroll top students in the state’s public institutions.
    But in recent years, a growing chorus(异口同声) of critics has begun pressuring schools to drop the practice. Recent decisions by Hamilton and others may be "a sign that people are starting to realize that there’s this destructive competition going on", says Baum, co-author of a recent College Report that raises concerns about the role of institutional aid not based on need.
    David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council, says many of his schools would like to reduce their merit aid but fear that in doing so, they would lose top students to their competitors.
    "No one can take one-sided action", says Laird, who is exploring whether to seek an exemption(豁免) from federal anti-trust laws so member colleges can discuss how they could jointly reduce merit aid. "This is a merry-go-round that’s going very fast, and none of the institutions believe they can sustain the risks of trying to break away by themselves".
    A complicating factor is that merit aid has become so popular with middle-income families, who don’t qualify for need-based aid, that many have come to depend on it. And, as tuitions continue to increase, the line between merit and need blurs.
    That is one reason Allegheny College doesn’t plan to drop merit aid entirely.
    "We still believe in rewarding superior achievements and know that these top students truly value the scholarship", says Scott Friedhiff, Allegheny’s vice president for enrollment.
    Emory University in Atlanta, which boasts a $4.7 billion endowment(捐赠), meanwhile, is taking another approach. This year, it announced it would eliminate loans for needy students and cap them for middle-income families. At the same time, it would expand its 28-year-old merit program.
    "Yeah, we’re playing the merit game", acknowledges Tom Lancaster, associate dean for undergraduate education. But it has its strong points, too, he says. "The fact of the matter is, it’s not just about the lowest-income people. It’s the average American middle-class family who’s being priced out of the market".
    A few words about merit-based aid:
    Merit-based aid is aid offered to students who achieve excellence in a given area, and is generally known as academic, athletic and artistic merit scholarships.
    Academic merit scholarships are based on students’ grades, GPA and overall academic performance during high school. They are typically meant for students going straight to college right after high school. However, there are scholarships for current college students with exceptional grades as well. These merit scholarships usually help students pay tuition bills, and they can be renewed each year as long as the recipients continue to qualify. In some cases, students may need to be recommended by their school or a teacher as part of the qualification process.
    Athletic merit scholarships are meant for students that excel(突出) in sports of any kind, from football to track and field events. Recommendation for these scholarships is required, since exceptional athletic performance has to be recognized by a coach or a referee(裁判). Applicants need to send in a tape containing their best performance.
    Artistic merit scholarships require that applicants excel in a given artistic area. This generally includes any creative field such as art, design, fashion, music, dance or writing. Applying for artistic merit scholarships usually requires that students submit a port folio(选辑) of some sort, whether that includes a collection of artwork, a recording of a musical performance or a video of them dancing.
选项 A、offering students more merit-based aid
B、revising their financial aid policies
C、increasing the amount of financial aid
D、changing their admission processes
答案 B
解析 【篇章大意】
    美国大学通常来说会把奖学金授予那些有特长的学生，本文叙述了美国大学奖学金政策的一些转变，他们在重新审视这些基于特长而授予的奖学金是否能真的使有限的用于教育的经费用到实处。文章列举了几个大学的做法。乔治.华盛顿大学从两方面减少奖学金，一是奖学金的总数；二是人数，并将结余出的250万奖学金用于那些因家庭贫困，而申请助学金的人身上。阿勒格尼大学三年前就有类似的决定。汉密尔顿大学宣称他们会在不减少当前奖学金的基础上，在2008年秋季新生中开始实施助学金。有的大学，例如哈佛和普林斯顿大学通常不给学生发奖学金，而是颁发非常慷慨的助学金。但是对于一些地方学校，为了吸引生源，奖学金能保障学校的收支平衡。埃默里大学的做法是将减少发放贷款，而继续扩大奖学金的规模，因为他们认为在当前经济形势下．中产阶级也是受害者。文章的最后介绍了奖学金的发放原则。奖学金通常会颁发给那些有学术、艺术或体育特长的学生们。

第一题是判断推理题。根据题干中的关键词more and more low-income students将目光锁定在文章的第二段with low-income students projected to make up an ever-larger share of the college-bound population in coming years，some schools are re-examining whether that aid，typically known as "merit aid"，is the most effective use of precious institutional dollars．(随着大量低收入家庭的孩子在未来的大学教育中占据越来越大的比例，一些学校在重新审视他们所实施的奖学金制度是否能够使珍贵的教育经费得到充分利用)。后面又举出若干大学减少奖学金发放的例子以证明这个观点。本题中的A和C与文章的观点和示例相反，因此可以排除；D在文章中没有提及，可排除。只有B是对于这部分内容的正确归纳。
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