Laurier increasing entrance scholarships

Future Wilfrid Laurier University students will be pleased with the recent changes to entrance scholarships put into effect for the upcoming year.

The scholarships, which are automatically awarded to incoming students based upon academic achievement, are a common feature of most universities across the province.

While entrance scholarships have long been a part of the admissions process at Laurier, the decision was made to update the current system.

“We’ve been talking about the scholarship grid for quite some time now. It hasn’t been reviewed for a decade, and it was really time to look at it,” said Glennice Burns, manager of recruitment and admissions.

The monetary value of these scholarships is determined by the students’ entrance grade, with the highest amount being awarded to those with an incoming average above 95 per cent.

While it was previously required for students to attain a minimum average of 85 per cent to receive a scholarship, the new system awards, within select programs, scholarships to student with averages above 80 per cent.

“We modified some of the figures to increase the value of entrance scholarships, and then added a few categories at the 80-85 per cent level,” said Ruth MacNeil, acting university registrar. “These were some areas that were found to be underfunded, so we included a new scholarship.”

Additionally, changes included a rise in the amount students could hope to earn in their subsequent years of study following first-year.

The decision was partially prompted by an acknowledgement that current and future students are facing rising tuition and living costs.

“School is getting more expensive. Everything is going up: rent for students and groceries for everybody,” said Burns. “We really care about students and we want to be able to assist students as best as we can, so certainly that is a focus for us, to help.”

An additional influential factor was a desire for the university’s scholarships to remain comparable to those of other universities.

“We want to stay competitive, we want to attract students who are maybe getting the same amount of money from another institution, so we certainly want to be competitive,” said Burns.

The new scholarships have been heavily advertised to prospective students, with Laurier hoping that the revised figures will be influential in the decision process of potential enrollees.

Current students welcomed the new entrance scholarships.

“It’s nice to see that [Laurier is] taking steps towards making things like tuition more manageable,” said Shameza Shamshudin, a first-year business student. “You’re always hearing that schools are aware of the financial burden on students, but here they’re doing something about it.”