Scholarships: A Reality Check for Future Generations

The offer wasn’t too good to pass up. As a young man ready to start college, Warren Christopher decided not to attend the University of Redlands because the $150 scholarship it offered was not enough to help cover expenses. Redlands doubled the annual award to $300 and Christopher changed his mind. The rest is history. He went on to transfer and graduate from the University of Southern California in 1945, attend Stanford Law School and become a distinguished attorney, diplomat and U.S. Secretary of State.

Unfortunately, $300 today would only cover one or two textbooks for a semester. As someone who benefited from a scholarship in a time of need, Christopher, a long-time California Community Foundation supporter, now sits on a committee that awards scholarships bearing his name from funds supplied by his law firm, O’Melveny & Myers.

Award winners are Los Angeles Unified School District students who are academically gifted and have demonstrated financial need and community involvement. The scholarship is renewable for four years, making it easier for students to focus on their work without worrying about financial strains. “The California Community Foundation has been an essential partner in carrying out our scholarship program,’’ said Christopher.

His scholarship fund is one of more than 150 that CCF administers. The foundation awards an average of $2.5 million a year in scholarships, with the average award at $4,000.

Still, financial need-based scholarships are declining and are insufficient to cover the rising cost of attending college. Yet students need a college degree to compete in today’s workplace. The difference in starting salaries for a college graduate versus a high school graduate averages $23,000 annually — and that gap continues to grow every year.

What It Costs to Go to College

Tuition often is the biggest barrier to higher education. Since 2002, community college tuition has doubled and public universities’ costs have tripled. Since 1980, private universities have raised their tuition 1.5 times, according to a recent study by the College Board. Other financial costs include housing, groceries, utilities, textbooks, school supplies, transportation and clothing.

While financial need-based scholarships have decreased, academic merit-based scholarships are rising. Educational institutions are pressured by annual rankings reported by news outlets, such as U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. To ensure a top ranking on these lists, colleges and universities place more focus on academic merit when awarding scholarships. This poses a major setback for financially needy students who may not be as academically competitive but are eager to complete their higher education.

Debt-ridden Graduates

In the last five years, there has been a dramatic increase in students taking out private loans to pay for school. With only 14 percent of aid coming from “other” sources, such as private or employer scholarships, private loans are the next best solution for many students. The result: more students are graduating with mounting debt, which affects the type of job or career path pursued to repay their loans.

Students also worry about finding funding for five-plus years of education. Studies show that students take an average of 5.3 years to complete their degree — often because courses fill up and are not available when they need to take them.

There needs to be more scholarships that help motivated and financially needy students get a college degree. Awards are most effective when they: 1) cover a substantial portion or all of the total cost to attend school and 2) are renewable for the time expected for the student to get a degree.

As one of the largest administrators of scholarships in Southern California, CCF has the expertise to structure a scholarship that will help to level the playing field for deserving students. Thanks to the generosity of our scholarship donors, today’s financially needy students might well follow the footsteps of former Secretary of State Christopher to become tomorrow’s leaders.

Raissa Cuarto and Amy Fackelmann contributed to this story.

The Cost of College

These charts show the average cost for a California resident to attend a local community, public and private college as a full-time, undergraduate student (based on 12 credits, equivalent to full-time student status) in California for the 2007-08 school year.

Click on the graph to enlarge.

1. Source: Web site of Citrus College; costs for transportation and miscellaneous not available.
* Cost of tuition for the 2005-06 school year.
2. Source: Web site of California State University, Los Angeles
3. Source: Web site of University of California
4. Source: Web site of University of Southern California

View other stories in Solutions, the foundation's latest journal.

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