Are Scholarships Becoming Extinct?

Hunter Hammond

According to a recent article by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, colleges across the state are losing funding for scholarships. The article explains that most academic scholarships given by state colleges and universities are funded through endowments from third parties. The article cites various institutions across the state which show an obvious decline in available scholarship funds. For example, the University of Georgia lost $163 million in scholarship funding this year. This sharp decline can be attributed to a perfect storm of sorts; the economy is in a recession, the recession causes the donors to withdraw their endowments, and students are in more need of scholarship in the status quo more than ever.

To make matters worse for students entering college, even state funded programs are on the decline. HOPE, Georgia's premier source of scholarship, which provided any student with a B average in high school to receive full-paid tuition to a local university or community college has been on the chopping block for state support. Jamie Signorile points out in his blog that the state has decided to put a cap on the HOPE scholarship. This illustrates how even state funding has been impacted by an ever dwindling economy.

Still worse, independent scholarships (scholarships which are funded through corporations, the government, philanthropies, and other third parties) are being rescinded and cut altogether. The money simply is no longer available. Xinhua News Agency has reported through Istockanalyst that independent third party scholarships are on the decline because of the economy. This means that students are left with an unimpressive pool for scholarship opportunity.

Are scholarships becoming extinct? Yes! Yes, they are. Students need the assistance of scholarships now more than ever; unfortunately, scholarship opportunities are slowly drying up. Hopefully, this is only a temporary trend; however, if a turnaround in scholarships is not looming on the horizon, then an alternative for students will be desperately needed.