February 13, 2018
SIU earns national recognition for awarding scholarships
CARBONDALE, Ill. — For the second time in 2018, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has earned national recognition for the scholarships and financial aid assistance it provides to students.
The Student Loan Report recently ranked SIU No. 67 in the nation among the “Public Colleges Where Students Earn the Most Scholarship Funding.” The rankings are determined on the basis of undergraduate scholarships provided to students by public colleges.
Hundreds of universities evaluated
According to The Student Loan Report, data for the rankings came from Peterson’s Financial Aid reports utilizing statistics from the 2015-16 academic year. More than 500 public, four-year colleges and universities were analyzed.
The overall total scholarships awarded to undergraduates by each institution was divided by the number of undergraduates attending there to derive the average scholarship aid per undergraduate student. That number was used to determine the rank.
The report notes that student loans, work-study programs and other alternatives are often an essential part of financing a college education but such options “don’t quite stack up to one ideal financial aid alternative: scholarships.” For that reason, the publication focused on scholarships, or “free money,” for its rankings.
SIU is the only Illinois university ranked within the top 150 spots.
Repeat honors
SIU also claimed the No. 1 rank in Online Colleges’ “10 Online Colleges with the Best Financial Aid Opportunities in 2017” list, released in January. All types of financial aid were incorporated into that ranking but grants and scholarships were valued higher in the formula used to determine the ranks.