Middle-Schoolers Passing Up Full College Scholarships
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
More than 56,000 middle-schoolers across Washington qualify for a new scholarship that would give them a free ride at a state college, but only a fraction of them have signed up.
The state's Higher Education Coordinating Board says only about 4,000 eligible students statewide have applied for College Bound Scholarships, which were established last year and are open to any middle-school student in a low-income home or foster care. About 900 of the estimated 2,400 eligible Seattle Public Schools students have applied.
Students who receive the scholarship promise they’ll maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average through high school and stay out of trouble with the law. In exchange, the state pays for up to four years of tuition and books at any accredited public or private college, community college or vocational-technical program in Washington.
Students must apply while in the seventh or eighth grade (ninth-graders can apply, but only during the 2008-09 school year). The scholarship doesn't guarantee acceptance to a particular college, and the student's eligibility depends on his or her family's financial status at the time of graduation.
