| I've read about the decisions of flagship state | | | | doing something right; only 10 percent of their |
| universities to increase merit-based, not need-based | | | | applicants get in. The same is true for the more |
| scholarships to the best-of-best students, the ones | | | | modern, and free, Olin College of Engineering in |
| who might have chosen an Ivy League school, or | | | | Massachusetts, and with our military service |
| other highly selective private college. | | | | academies. But Cooper Union, and Olin are small |
| This is not an academic strategy as much as it is an | | | | schools, and our three military service academies are |
| economic development strategy; state politicians do | | | | mid-sized with approximately 4,500 students each. |
| not want the best students to take their talents out | | | | They do not come close to having the enrollment |
| of state, and possibly never return. However, this is | | | | obligations of a flagship state school. |
| an expensive strategy, as a state university ends up | | | | So I'd like to offer a suggestion: make the |
| pursuing students who have not marked it down as | | | | merit-based aid awards fairer and more accessible to |
| their first-choice school. That's unfair to other | | | | students who truly want to attend a flagship school - |
| students who can get accepted, but truly need | | | | by asking the students to apply for them after they |
| financial assistance to enroll. It's also unfair to ask | | | | get in. Junk the numbers: SATs, grades and class |
| bright people to consider staying in a state that has | | | | rank from the process and have an open competition |
| lost employment or failed to improve its quality of | | | | among admitted students based on essays, portfolios |
| life. Bright people gravitate to places where other | | | | and interviews, just as the Ivy League schools do. |
| bright people want to live and work. | | | | Any applicant who believes that they are worthy of |
| The fairest, but most improbable, option is make the | | | | a free ride gets a shot to prove it. And don't |
| flagship school tuition-free for everyone, regardless | | | | guarantee a free ride for four years; make the |
| of need; the only non-academic expenses being | | | | recipient prove that they are worthy each year. I |
| housing or commuting. Free tuition would also make | | | | know people knock athletes for their free rides, but |
| the school more selective, since it becomes a | | | | they're asked to make athletic progress and |
| powerful incentive that any admitted student can | | | | academic progress to maintain them. An athlete who |
| receive - as long as they get in. In this case, merit | | | | gets out of playing shape or gets in trouble is kicked |
| isn't a hand out, it is earned from competition. | | | | off the team, and quite often, kicked out of school. |
| City College of New York (CCNY) was a free | | | | I realize that a competitive merit scholarship program |
| institution when my father and the early Baby | | | | may be more cumbersome for financial aid officers at |
| Boomers went to college and it was regarded as one | | | | the flagship universities, but a state school is different |
| of the best public institutions in the country. But free | | | | from a selective private school. It has more |
| tuition sometimes means fewer amenities; for | | | | resources, but it takes a very self-motivated student |
| instance, Cooper Union, a top notch engineering and | | | | to learn out how to use them. The best and |
| design school in New York that had been free from | | | | brightest who expect to be coddled by their college |
| day one, has no luxury dorms or football teams. But | | | | may not succeed at a less personal state university. |
| if you get into to join ultra-selective group, and pay | | | | So, why hand them money that should rightfully go |
| nothing, the lack of amenities should mean nothing, if | | | | to a student who really wants to be there? |
| there are rewards to come. Cooper Union must be | | | | |