However, institutions should not allow the rising number of merit scholarships to impede the growth of need-based awards. Colleges should remain more committed to providing needy students the opportunity for higher education than to recruiting the academic elite.
Between 1983 and 1991, merit-based scholarships to first-year students at public institutions grew an average of 12 percent annually, according to "The Student Aid Game." Though unsure of the exact rate of increase, University Assistant Director of Financial Aid Al Hersen said that the University, too, has augmented its merit-based scholarship provision since the mid-'80s. The increases constitute a positive trend. The higher availability of merit-based awards will encourage better scholastic performance among high school students, increase college options for the academic elite, and will help institutions - including the University - increase the quality of their student populations.
During the same period, however, the growth of merit scholarship funds has outpaced the growth of need-based funds. In fact, the annual growth rate of need-based funds has fallen 3 percent behind that of merit-based funds at private institutions. At public institutions, need-based funds have grown at only half the rate of merit-based funds.
Given current statistics about the rising cost of college, this disparity warrants concern. Nearly 60 percent of United States voters polled by The Washington Post in 1996 said college costs are putting higher education out of the reach of most Americans. A congressional record report from the same year revealed that as a percentage of median household income, tuition has nearly doubled over the past 15 years. Clearly, colleges have priced education out of many students' reach. Therefore, colleges must assure that ample funds exist to extend the opportunity for higher education to qualified students who demonstrate financial need. Merit-based scholarships must not cut into funding for need-based ones.
To ensure that need-based funds remain unscathed by the growth of merit-based awards, colleges should, if necessary, examine alternative options. Institutions might consider offering prestige-based scholarships, whose distinction outweighs monetary value instead of merit-based scholarships.
They might also explore the option of revamping merit-based scholarships into hybrid merit- and need-based awards. No matter the avenue institutions decide to take, they must not allow the desire to recruit top students to overshadow the importance of making education financially accessible to all students.