Tim Baldi
Senior Reporter
Scholarship weekends at Bryan will no longer divide Dean and Presidential scholarship applicants by merit when they visit campus and are interviewed by faculty members.
Bryan will no longer host the Presidential Scholarship Weekend and the Dean Scholarship Weekend, according to Financial Aid Counselor Ryan Smith. Instead Bryan will invite dean, presidential and presidential merit scholars to attend either of the two scholarship weekends offered during the spring semester.
In addition to the scholarship weekend changes, Bryan has revised the standards for merit-based scholarships and dropped the dean merit scholarship, according to Smith.
The standard for merit scholarships is now a fixed scale, said Mike Sapienza, vice president for enrollment management.
In the past, Bryan required prospective students applying for presidential and dean scholarships to attend their respective scholarship weekends to receive their full merit scholarship. Now visitors will know how much their scholarships offer them before visiting Bryan to help them know if they can financially afford to attend Bryan.
In order to make this possible, scholarships are based off purely off merit, said Smith. “Whoever is eligible receives that scholarship.”
The changes allow prospective students to know most of their scholarship earnings before visiting campus, said Sapienza.
Depending on their GPA and ACT or SAT scores, future students will receive dean, presidential, presidential merit, or no scholarship without factoring in their interviews with faculty during scholarship weekends.
Instead, faculty interviews with visitors will now be interdisciplinary and will determine if students receive an additional $1,000 scholarship based on how well they are expected to be good fits for the Bryan community in areas such as academics, spirituality or leadership, according to Smith.
The next scholarship weekend begins this Friday, March 23.