eli5 What benefit is it to a university to hand out full tuition scholarships?
In: 1
* getting high performing students into your school usually results in your school having better graduation rates and post-graduate outcomes. Giving an exceptional student a full ride to get them to come to your school will likely contribute to enticing paying students to want to come to your school.
* The above also applies to faculty. Professors like working with very smart students and having more of them (even if they’re not paying) can help attract and retain faculty members.
* It can be a way for colleges to advance their mission. While all organizations are motivated to stay solvent and make money, non-profit colleges have other goals as well. They may offer exceptional students from poor backgrounds scholarships because they want to build a more diverse student body or promote access to education.
They’re betting on the recipient to contribute to the creation of revenue through their output and resulting reputation. Whether an athlete ends up in a Hall of Fame, or an academic discovers/invents/creates something, the university can always claim them as their own. And if the achievement is realized on University Time and money, they just may own that too.
When a university identifies someone who will likely be successful in their chosen field, either through academics, public service, or athletics, it is in the university’s best interest to make sure that person goes to their university.
Harvard is famous for lawyers because they have put out a lot of very high profile Lawyers. MIT has put out a lot of very high profile engineers. This is true on a state level as well. Purdue puts out engineers and football players. IU makes doctors and basketball players. Because of these reputations and famous alumni, other people are more likely to want to go to those schools for those programs.
Another reason for scholarships is for research programs. If my school pays for the full ride of a chemistry student who works in the school’s labs and develops a new cancer drug, the university owns that research and the drug which is a HUGE money maker. The cost of that student’s scholarship is made up very quickly.
All of this is a gamble though. Many who get scholarships do not do anything useful with them. Some fail out, some switch schools, some graduate and lead a fine life, but are otherwise not noteworthy to the school.
Latest Answers