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Nearly 1,700 apply for spring financial grants
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Posted on Dec 29 2011
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
Reporter
Nearly 1,700 students have applied for financial assistance with the CNMI Scholarship Office for the spring 2012 semester-slightly higher compared to the spring 2011 semester.
CNMI Scholarship Office administrator Jackie Che disclosed yesterday that her office received a total of 1,692 applications for the new academic term. This is 134 more applicants compared to the 1,558 that applied for financial awards in the spring 2011 term.
The spring 2012 applicants are composed of 639 applications submitted by the Dec. 15 deadline and 1,020 that are considered renewable applications from the fall 2011 semester.
Che disclosed that 592 of the 639 applications are students of the Northern Marianas College. She said that off-island students were notified via their approval letter that their fall 2011 applications are still valid for the spring 2012 term, hence many did not resubmit their applications. Of the 1,053 eligible fall 2011 applications, 1,020 are renewable for spring 2012.
In total, the scholarship office received 1,020 (renewable) and 639 (new and duplicated spring 2012) applications.
Che said that 37 honor applications are eligible for the spring 2012 term. Ongoing honor scholars must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0, along with other requirements, to keep their awards.
Che is pleased to see an increase in the number of students who want to pursue college education. “Even with the current economic crunch and increasing number of applicants, our scholars still see the value of applying for the scholarship,” she said.
Recipients of the NMI Scholarship Office awards experienced a cut in their financial awards since the fall semester of 2011 after the board enforced a 42-percent cut in the educational assistance program, or EAP award. From previous years’ $1,200 financial awards under EAP, the amount was slashed to $700 per student per semester starting last semester. The policy change was due to the high number of applications received for the awards.
The NMI Scholarship Office has been allocated a $2 million budget this fiscal year, of which $1.1 million will go to NMC scholars-both honors and EAP-while the remaining balance will go to off-island scholars.
