By Emily Glazer

The Daily Northwestern

This spring, incoming freshmen were eligible to receive Northwestern’s first merit-based scholarships, allowing the school to further compete with other prestigious universities that already offer such awards.

The Founder’s Scholarship was approved this winter, offering 85 prospective freshmen between $2,500 and $7,500 yearly based on academic success and their family’s middle-class status, Associate Provost for University Enrollment Michael Mills said.

The scholarship was formed because NU has evidence that prospective students choose other universities based on merit aid, Mills said.

“Students who we strongly believe were inclined to come to Northwestern are taking a scholarship and going to their second-choice schools because of the generosity of the scholarships (offered),” Mills said.

The money comes from NU’s regular aid allocation from the administration, Mills said. This year the aid budget was $70.4 million and the Founder’s Scholarship used less than 0.5 percent – with the average amount given to students this year being $6,200 – he said.

Mills said he looked at 250 students this year and “whittled it down” to 85 students, who were offered the scholarship in a letter mailed with their NU acceptances.

He said the admissions office rates accepted students on a scale, so it was “easy” to see which students were the top-rated academically. The economic requirement was based on students’ financial aid applications.

Gabe Haack, an incoming freshman, received $20,000 for the next four years through the Founder’s Scholarship.

He said he was deciding between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and NU. But after he found out he was accepted to NU, he was definitely coming, scholarship or not, he said.

“I wasn’t really expecting anything, and I was pretty happy about it,” he said. “And my mom was ecstatic.”

Although the Founder’s Scholarship is NU’s first merit-based scholarship, there are other exclusive programs at NU to help foster further academic and extracurricular achievement.

The Communication Century Scholars program, run through the School of Communication, gives the most outstanding undergraduate students special opportunities to connect with faculty, conduct independent research or creative activity, and be mentored for scholarship and graduate fellowship competitions, said Communication Dean Barbara O’Keefe.

Students’ achievements have ranged from studying Shakespeare in England and coming back to produce an authentic Shakespearean production at NU, to conducting HIV research in Uganda.

Though the Century Scholars Program does not offer financial assistance, it does aid students with outside financial competitions and fellowships.

Mills stressed that despite the formation of the Founder’s Scholarship, it does not mean NU is abandoning its commitments to need-based aid or to meeting 100 percent of the financial need of students.

“We just have the endowment to get both,” he said. “And not a lot of schools can do that.”

Reach Emily Glazer at [email protected].