Miami University Offers New Full Tuition Scholarship For 2020 Applicants

Miami University is offering free tuition for one student from each of Ohio’s 88 counties starting in the fall of 2020. And all the students have to do is apply.

The new Governor’s Scholarship does not involve any additional paperwork, said Bethany Perkins, Miami’s admissions director, but the priority deadline for applications for the 2020-21 school year is approaching.

“We don’t want this to be something that is a barrier or extra in the application process. There is actually no additional application needed,” she said. “There is not an extra box to check or anything. All we ask is that students complete their application and submit all of their documents by Dec. 1.”

Merit and academic achievements will be the biggest factors in the awards, she said, but need will also be considered.

The scholarship is renewable for four years and it covers tuition and fees, which currently totals about $15,900 per year, according to Perkins.

The Oxford, Ohio, school has seen growth in applications in recent years even though Ohio’s overall graduation rate is declining. Perkins said, the new scholarship is not an effort to boost enrollment.

“This is because we still want to get everyone,” she said. “We don’t want to miss one student who is potentially still self-selecting out – ‘Maybe I won’t get in’ or ‘Maybe if I do get in, I can’t afford it.’ We don’t believe that to be true necessarily for our top scholars. We have a lot of opportunities for them and this is our opportunity to say, ‘Just apply’.”