eli5 What benefit is it to a university to hand out full tuition scholarships?
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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.
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