Continuos Competition for Aid

With an uncertain economy, the Ole Miss Office of Financial Aid has noticed an increase in applicants and more competition for funds. “There has been a huge change in the amount of students applying for aid, said Dewey Knight, advising director for Financial Aid. “the economy is worse and more families need support for their students.”

The 2009-2010 year ended with 13,912 students receiving aid that totaled $158.7 million. Looking into the past years, the 2007-2008 school year had 11,034 students who received aid. Although totals for this school year will not be available until June, Knight has no doubt there will be another increase. There are a record 15,500 students on the Oxford campus this year. Robert Givens, also an advising director in the office said there’s another dimension. “We are aware that more students are in need of aid and although the requirements basically remain the same as previous years, due to the increased number of applicants the awarding process was much more competitive.” he said.

For some students, the availability of financial aid is what is making their dreams of higher education become reality. One of them is, Bryn Davis, a sophomore Hospitality Management major, who completed the Free Federal Application for Student Aid, the first step in seeking financial assistance. Davis said she was able to receive $5,500 in a Pell Grant and up to $1,200 in work-study compensation because Davis works on campus a maximum of 12 hours per week. Not every student can get a campus job. “For students who have federal aid, one of the hardest things for them to get is work-study because we only get an alloted amount of money and when it runs out there is no more to get.” Knight said.

Along with federal aid students each year are able to apply for scholarships. Unlike the federal aid, this money comes from alumni and other donors at the university. “We are very successful in reaching out to alumni who are very generous, said Knight. “That being said once we receive this money we invest it and since the financial markets have not been successful, less scholarship money has been able to be awarded because we have had less return on our endowment.”For students who are trying to receive aid this is where the competitive circumstances come in. They must apply for scholarships that are based on grade point average, service, and leadership. “With more students applying for the different scholarships offered it is much harder to give students as much aid as it was in previous years and that is where the competitiveness to receive aid comes into play”, Givens said.

Students interested in applying for financial aid can go to their website, http://www.olemiss.edu/finaid/index.html, for more information.