The University of Akron has a new guarantee for local students struggling to pay for college.
The Making Akron Possible grant will cover tuition and fees — about $13,000 annually — for all first-year students from Summit, Stark, Medina, Portage, Cuyahoga and Wayne counties whose families make $50,000 or less per year. That’s after retirement contributions, student loan interest payments and some other expenses are considered. The grants will be available for the first time for students next fall.
“We have a specific commitment to the local community,” said Steve McKellips, the university’s vice provost for enrollment management. “As a participant in the community, we’re an active player in the development of the community, as well.”
McKellips said he hopes the new grant will help local students fulfill their dreams of getting a college degree. The grant, largely repurposed from merit grants that the university had been giving out, will fill the gaps for students after they accept other available scholarship money, he said, including Pell grants, but will not require students to accept any loans.
Students will have to qualify each year using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, but will have their tuition and fees covered for four years, if they continue to be eligible.
McKellips hopes by making the money available, the university will keep students from not going to college because they don’t think they can afford it.
“This is our way of saying that group needs help, our community needs help,” McKellips said. “We want to avoid the self-restriction by telling everybody it’s solved. … Coming out of the pandemic, families need a little more help.”
Targeted scholarships benefit local students, keeps them in the area
Students graduating from North High School have already benefited from similar targeted scholarships at the university, said Brian Caperones, a school counselor there. He said once students understand tuition is free, they’re inclined to consider going to Akron.
“It makes four-year college accessible; it helps the families a lot,” he said. “Sometimes, kids don’t believe you. It sounds too good to be true.”
Caperones said he hopes to see more college graduates stay in the area once they’ve earned their degrees, improving incomes in the community. He said while a lot of students at North, which has a large refugee population, look at two-year programs, grants like this one entice them to four-year colleges.
The tuition program’s existence will lead more local students to apply to college at Akron, he said. Last year, he had 12 students go to Akron, and every one of them would have qualified for the grant program. This year, Caperones said, 50 students from North’s graduating class of 141 are planning to apply to Akron for college.
McKellips said because it’s a new program, he has no idea how many students might be eligible for the scholarships — but he expects it will be hundreds of students. Any attendees will still be required to cover their own housing costs, though McKellips said students in the region may be able to continue living at home. And they’ll have to pay for books, which can range widely in cost depending on a student’s area of study but which the University estimates cost $1,500 a year. Merit scholarships to cover those expenses will still be available.
“We believe we have to be good neighbors to our local community,” he said. “It’s an automatic guarantee for students who qualify.”
Most of all, McKellips said, he hopes the new grant option will make a difference in the lives of some students who would not have otherwise gotten a degree.
“If people self-eliminate, then college goes away for them as an option,” he said. “When I close my eyes and I hope, I’m hopeful we can put away the notion that college isn’t affordable and I can’t go. Let’s talk about what’s possible.”
