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Monday, August 25, 2008
Was “affordable college” on your list of reasons to move here?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The U.S. News & World Report college rankings hit newsstands today, and Georgia, Georgia Tech, Emory, Spelman, Morehouse and Agnes Scott all made some of the lists.
As the AJC story points out, these rankings are loathed by most school administrators. Still, it’s an ego boost to list-happy parents, students and alumni, and is quick to get the attention of people shopping for schools.
As a high school student in Michigan, I considered going out-of-state for approximately 10 seconds, the amount of time it took to do the math: likelihood of massive student loan debt + general uncertainty about life’s course - cafeteria work wages - aspirational scholarship funds = perfectly lovely in-state school education.
Of course, if you live in Georgia, the reason to stay in-state is even stronger, fancy-sounding rankings or not. It’s called the HOPE scholarship.
Here’s the deal: the Georgia Lottery-funded scholarship covers tuition, some fees and some books for students who are Georgia residents and maintain a B average throughout high school, if they attend an eligible in-state school. (Private school students can get a portion of the cost paid, too.)
Yes, in this tough economy, Georgia universities might make staff cuts and increase fees that would fall outside the reach of HOPE.
Yes, the formula to calculate students’ grade averages recently changed, which left some students and parents disappointed.
And yes, the dangling carrot of paid tuition creates some intense competition to get in to state schools.
Hard to see the downside of greater academic achievement, though. Without requiring an essay or interview, a certain SAT score or even an A-average, the program has helped 1,191,115 students with $4.1 billion since 1993.
I’m thrilled with my college education and that it helped me to land here, out-of-state. But if I’d known more than what was in the rankings, if I’d believed the HOPE scholarship wasn’t some higher education fairy tale…maybe I would’ve been a newcomer sooner.
Did it convince you to move here, or to stay here?
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