Story Pitch: Scholarships
Slug:
History Behind Scholarships in AUC
Synopsis:
Over the past decade, the number of undergraduate students that received the academic achievement scholarship has significantly fallen to just one quarter of the student body. This story will investigate the causes behind this change.
Pitch:
For a student to attain an achievement scholarship today, they must have at least 30 credit hours and a GPA of 3.75. To maintain their scholarship, students must maintain a minimum of a 3.0 GPA with a full-time status (taking a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester). According to the AUC website, the scholarship is offered to the top 25% of undergraduate students and covers 30% of tuition fees.
Between fall semesters 2008 and 2012, the number of undergraduate students that received the academic achievement scholarship ranged from 27 to 25 percent of the entire undergraduate student body, meaning that only the top quarter percentile is awarded the scholarship just as mentioned above. For instance, in the 2012 fall semester, exactly 1,361 out of 5,345 students were awarded the scholarship.
*Tables and graphs below were taken from the AUC Fact Book 2012-2013 and 2007-2008 respectively.
History Behind Scholarships in AUC
Synopsis:
Over the past decade, the number of undergraduate students that received the academic achievement scholarship has significantly fallen to just one quarter of the student body. This story will investigate the causes behind this change.
Pitch:
For a student to attain an achievement scholarship today, they must have at least 30 credit hours and a GPA of 3.75. To maintain their scholarship, students must maintain a minimum of a 3.0 GPA with a full-time status (taking a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester). According to the AUC website, the scholarship is offered to the top 25% of undergraduate students and covers 30% of tuition fees.
Between fall semesters 2008 and 2012, the number of undergraduate students that received the academic achievement scholarship ranged from 27 to 25 percent of the entire undergraduate student body, meaning that only the top quarter percentile is awarded the scholarship just as mentioned above. For instance, in the 2012 fall semester, exactly 1,361 out of 5,345 students were awarded the scholarship.
*Tables and graphs below were taken from the AUC Fact Book 2012-2013 and 2007-2008 respectively.
However, the AUC 2007–2008 Fact Book reveals that in year 2002, over 60 percent of the undergraduate student body were on the academic achievement scholarship. This percentage began to rapidly fall, hitting a staggering 29 percent in 2006. These statistics show that the number of undergraduates on scholarship dropped by 1000 within the mentioned time frame.
The focus of this story should be to explore reasons behind the decline of the number of students that now have the academic achievement scholarship. Suggested causes could be due to change in university budget policies or higher standards from secondary education because of a change in syllabi. Marketing reasons may also be a justification; universities normally offer more room for scholarships to attract more prospective students.
Interviews:
1. Director of scholarships: Elham Metwally
2. Senior specialist admissions: Nisreen Ezzat
Interview Questions:
1. Elham Metwally:
2. Nisreen Ezzat:
Additional Sources:
1. History of Scholarships in AUC, an audio documentary highlighting the history of scholarships in AUC that is found in the Digital Archive and Research Repository as well as the website called Internet Archive.
Interviews:
1. Director of scholarships: Elham Metwally
- Email: [email protected]
2. Senior specialist admissions: Nisreen Ezzat
- Email: [email protected]
Interview Questions:
1. Elham Metwally:
- Is the achievement scholarship meant to work as an incentive for enrolled students as well as for those wishing to apply to AUC?
- Have there been any changes in scholarship qualifications over the past 15 years?
- When and why did the university first start the academic achievement scholarships?
- Did the achievement scholarship cover the same percentage of tuition fees as it does today?
- What processes or what would allow the university to make changes to policies regarding scholarships?
2. Nisreen Ezzat:
- Have there been changes in secondary school syllabi over the past 15 years that would mean a student must meet higher academic standards? (For example, British, American, French, German, Arabic or IB syllabi).
- How many applicants on average are already eligible for scholarships upon admission?
- Are the scholarships offered by AUC a major attraction for students who apply to join the university?
Additional Sources:
1. History of Scholarships in AUC, an audio documentary highlighting the history of scholarships in AUC that is found in the Digital Archive and Research Repository as well as the website called Internet Archive.