More and more Illinois colleges and universities are offering full tuition scholarships. “The Huskie Pledge,” “The Rockford Promise,” “The Illinois Commitment” -- everyone’s got one now. But as nice as zero tuition sounds, is it too good to be true?
Saida Bajrami is a junior at Dixon High School who spends a lot of time volunteering. She helps out at little league games, food drives, and she’s even shucked corn.
“One time was kind of special to me," she said. "I went out to this church, and we were cooking and putting together a meal to give away later. It was a small group, and it was just so nice being able to sit there and do things knowing I'm helping other people.”
She says it’s helped her get to know her community. And, it also helped her earn a full-tuition scholarship at Sauk Valley Community College through their Impact Program.
Students in Sauk Valley’s district, like Bajrami, sign up before their freshman year of high school. And, unlike many “free tuition scholarships,” there’s no GPA or income requirement. But they do have to complete 25 hours of community service per year.
Lori Cortez with Sauk says the Impact Program launched in 2021, so the first big cohort of students will arrive at the college this summer.
“We are projecting a 20% increase in enrollment because of the impact program," she said.
And aside from its impact on Sauk Valley, Cortez says students like Bajrami have made a massive impact on the area. Since launch, students have logged over 58,000 hours of community service across 240 nonprofits.
“We've had several nonprofits tell us." said Cortez, "that their nonprofit services would have been closed if it wasn't for the Impact Program, which is huge."
But how does Sauk pay for the program? Cortez says it’s all local fundraising -- from small donations to an anonymous million-dollar donor.
Other “zero tuition scholarships” in northern Illinois look very different. At Northern Illinois University, they first launched “Huskie Pledge” in 2019. They funded it with a new state grant called “AIM High.” Now, just about every public university in the state has their own version of it from the Illinois Commitment at U of I to the Saluki and the Western Commitment -- all through AIM High.
“Huskie Pledge” does have GPA and family income thresholds, but NIU’s Sol Jensen says some of that criteria has changed quite a bit since the program started.
“When we first started Huskie pledge, back in 2019, the income threshold was at $75,000, said Jensen. "Now, we're up to $115,000 of family income."
He says they could increase that income requirement because the state increased AIM High allocations. Now, these scholarships can reach middle income students too.
Kyle Westbrook with NIU’s EdSystems Center says middle income families can often find themselves in financial aid no man’s land.
“That student is probably not going to qualify for any financial aid, federal or state," said Westbrook, "and yet, their parents never made enough money to be able to sock away $400,000 to fund their college experience."
But it’s not just public colleges and universities, either. Now, North Central College -- a small, private university in Naperville -- has a new “Cardinal Pledge” program.
The tagline? “Tuition free. Debt free. Stress free. NOT too good to be true.” Aggie Hanni with North Central says that came from conversations with students.
“They felt like ‘It's a catch, right? It's a bait and switch of some sort, like there's something to it. It can't be true. It's too good to be true,’" said Hanni. "So, we really wanted to double down and emphasize that there's no tactics here. There's no tricks. This is reality.”
She says the College did increase merit scholarship funds to help pay for it.
To meet the criteria, students must qualify for the federal Pell Grant and state MAP grant. Students who qualify for federal aid are often already eligible for many grants and scholarships -- even without these Pledge and Promise programs.
But, NIU’s Jason Klein says -- on top of potentially saving money -- they also help cut through the noise and simplify the financial aid process.
Most students don’t know their family’s gross-adjusted income off the top of their head. Once they apply to schools, they don’t know until pretty late in the process how much financial aid they’ll receive and how much they’ll have to pay out of pocket. Klein says these full-tuition scholarships aren’t just good marketing for marketing’s sake, they actually can offer families some clarity about how expensive college will be. If you qualify for Pell, zero tuition. That’s that.
“Rockford Promise” is yet another zero tuition scholarship, but this one is regional. As you could probably guess, it’s solely for Rockford students.
But Aurora Schnorr with Rockford Promise says scholarships aren’t limited to one school.
“Regular graduating seniors have Rockford University, NIU, and then RVC," she said, "and then we have a transfer option that's launching this year for Saint Anthony College of Nursing. We'll have limited scholarships there."
When Rockford Promise started giving out full-tuition awards in 2016, they handed out five. Schnorr says they’ve grown a lot since.
“We're just under 500 for how many are in school with us right now," said Schnorr, "and then, I think we're at about 170 graduated."
The program operates on a variety of funding sources, from local fundraising to support from the city of Rockford. They were able to expand Rockford University scholarships this year thanks to a partnership with the city using revenue from the new Hard Rock Casino.
Rockford Promise also has GPA requirements, and some of their partnerships include income requirements. Two-thirds of Rockford Promise students are first-generation college students, so Schnorr says they also just launched a career development mentoring initiative to make sure their students succeed once they get to college.
So, do these programs save students money? Yes, they all include at least some new scholarship funding. But how much will it save them? That depends on the pledge, promise, or commitment they’re being made.
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