SUU Offers Scholarships For Online Programs

Financing a college education can present several challenges for students and their families. It is the top concern of students as they contemplate their continuing education.

Steve Meredith, Associate Vice President of Enrollment – Graduate and Online Programs for Southern Utah University joined us on the radio show to acknowledge the situation students are facing today and to offer some possible solutions.

Meredith told us, “we know that the number one concern that people have about going to college is how to pay for it, and that's a legitimate concern. Higher education is expensive, more expensive than it should be, frankly.”

To offer some relief to that problem, Meredith was on the show to talk about some scholarship opportunities that could be "stackable" with other programs, or could be available without adding to a students debt, and is a first time opportunity for online students.

“In the past we haven't really had very much in the way of scholarships for online students,” Meredith said. Now, he told us they have money available for undergraduate and graduate online students. He told us the funds are limited, but that the university was excited to have these funds available for the first time for online students.

One program available for undergraduate students is called The Finish Line. The Finish Line program has been available for some time but until now was only offered to students participating on a full time basis, which is twelve credit hours per semester. For most online students Meredith told us, “they have families, they have careers, they can't also be enrolled in full time credit.”

SUU has now changed the requirement for the Finish Line program, to where students can go halftime and receive a part of the regular scholarship that the Finish Line program offers. This scholarship is “stackable” which means it can be added on top of a Pell Grant, or any other federal financial aid a student may qualify for.

Meredith also told us there are scholarships available for online graduate students. On program is called the Let's GO program with the GO standing for Graduate Online. “This scholarship is entirely for Master's Degree students.” He said these could be for new students, or for students that transfer in.

Another graduate online scholarship program is the Adult Learner Grant. This is a grant from the federal government to SUU. This program has a few more restrictions. It is, however, targeted to rural residents of Utah who are over the age of 26. Several of the Masters program offered by SUU qualify for this program.

Meredith said these are new products offered for this fall semester for online students, and reminded our audience that the semester starts on August 30^th. Since funding is limited, it's recommended that applications be made as soon as possible.

Meredith told us that the online programs are “geared toward people who are either wanted to finish something they started on the Bachelors degree level or get started in to a Masters degree program. Online education is one of the least threatening things you can do to improve your life.”

To check out the programs that are available go to suu.edu/online.

And you can listen to our entire segment with Mr. Meredith below.