Rao focuses on competitive aid, scholarships
VCU President Michael Rao said changes within the financial aid department may have contributed to this year’s large freshman class and the elevated grade point average that came with the class.
Though the amount of scholarship money VCU has dispersed has increased since the 1999-2000 school year, Rao said VCU graduates still graduate with the most debt of any college graduates in the state. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia reported VCU students used $7,825,964 in scholarship money in the 2009-2010 school year, a number Rao said he wants to increase. Graph illustration by Ying Cheng.
Mechelle Hankerson
News Editor
Some might suspect that VCU’s national attention from last semester’s Final Four run attracted more students, but VCU President Michael Rao said changes within the financial aid department may have contributed to this year’s large freshman class and the elevated grade point average that came with the class.
VCU’s Financial Aid Department offers competitive aid, which is a process that gives competitive students favorable financial-aid packages in an effort to bring them to VCU rather than other universities.
In a meeting with members of the student media in September, Rao said the new aid program helps secure more competitive students’ entrance into VCU.
“I think (competitive students) probably always applied,” Rao said. “We probably always admitted them, but then they didn’t come.”
Rao said he thinks students who choose other schools over VCU may have done so because other schools were able to offer more money with less debt.
“A lot of students who are very competitive, (who) have lots of options (like) the University of Virginia or other places (are) going to go … where they will have the least debt,” Rao said.
According to Rao, when he came to VCU in 2008, the school’s graduates had more debt than any other college graduates in the state.
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) reported in the 2008-2009 school year, VCU awarded $101,714,349 worth of loans to students. Last year, SCHEV reported that VCU awarded $109,618,120 worth of loans.
In the 2009-2010 academic year, Virginia Tech dispersed the most financial aid among four-year public institutions, totaling $216,894,732. VCU came in second with a total of $187,086,483.
Rao said he spends about a third of his time on fundraising and it will ultimately benefit students.
“Most of contributions (to) the university, going forward, will be scholarship money for students,” he said.
Four percent of VCU’s total financial aid in 2009-2010 was scholarship funds, which totaled a little less than $8 million.
VCU Associate Director of Financial Aid, Tina Baskins, did not respond to requests for this year’s information.
VCU Business Services is one office within the university that disperses scholarships.
According to Dan McDonald, the assistant director of VCU Business Services, the office has been able to offer about $53,000 in scholarships to VCU students.
Business Services scholarships are funded through different companies that work with VCU, like Aramark dining services.
“The companies working on campus appreciate the students’ business and want to give back to the university community,” McDonald said in an email.
McDonald said that Business Services makes sure that all the scholarships created by companies are dispersed. He anticipates that about $53,000 will be available again for the 2012-2013 school year.
To view available Business Services scholarships, go to www.bsv.vcu.edu. The application deadline for 2012-2013 scholarships is February 23, 2012. Contact Stephen Monroe at 828-3637 or smonroe@vcu.edu for more information.
