6. Step-down scholarships and extending the duration of scholarships (Affordability)

A significant pressure for many new students comes from having to maintain a high-enough GPA in order to keep their scholarships.  Most new students are not only wrestling with the increased academic demands of college, but many are also learning for the first time how to live on their own and be independent.  In response, we adjusted our scholarship policy to ensure that each student on scholarship maintains their scholarship for both semesters of their first year, regardless of their first-semester GPA. <br/><br/>The second scholarship initiative to improve retention rates are to automatically “step down” students to the scholarship level just below the one they currently had rather than completely removing their scholarship. New episodes will be released every Monday.