Arizona Joins States Cutting Back Merit Scholarships
Citing budget cuts and the need to screen better for college readiness, the board of regents approved changes to the popular Arizona university scholarship but exempted from them existing high school juniors and seniors. The new requirements mean students will not only have to earn an “exceeds” rating on all three parts of the AIMS test but also must score at least 28 on the ACT or at least 1300 on the SAT college-entrance exams. They also must meet certain minimum grade requirements, generally a 3.5 average. The scholarship will be lowered from 100% to 25% of freshman-level tuition.
An interesting difference between the Arizona AIMS scholarship and the Georgia HOPE scholarship is that tuition (not taxes) pays for the Arizona program. Arizona has no state financial aid program. Details from the Arizona news are here http://bit.ly/akMnPY