Undergraduate admissions at the University of Dallas has recently unveiled four new full-tuition disciplinary scholarships for prospective students. There will be one full-tuition scholarship for English, one for biology/chemistry/biochemistry, one for philosophy/politics and one for business.
Andrew Ellison, vice president of enrollment, said, “We wanted to reinforce the message that the University of Dallas is committed to making itself affordable and that while there’s a need-based component to financial aid, we really want to underscore the merit-based component to that.”
He continued, “If you’re a great student, if you’re among the top students nationwide, you should be applying to the University of Dallas. The second thing we wanted to do was affirm some of our core academic strengths. There are no weak departments here at the University of Dallas, but we have some that stand out. Those…correspond to our top three majors historically – business, biology and English.”
According to Carey Christenberry, director of undergraduate admissions, potential students have been notified of these scholarships, and the deadline to apply is Dec. 1. The application requires a 500-word essay about each of the areas of interest the student wants to apply for.
“On December 10th, [we] will send them information regarding the nature of the competition and the timing of the competition, which will take place sometime in the spring. It will involve some type of webinar, potentially Q & A with a professor and then the student will probably be asked to write another essay based on the interaction with the professor or the interaction with the webinar, and in a way that would be more specific to a class assignment,” said Christenberry.
“We’re asking high school students to state, ‘Why do you think you might like to study this discipline in college?’ but also, ‘Who are some of the major thinkers, leaders or figures that have influenced you?’ [We’re] inviting our potential students to really reflect on what they’re keen on and how they got to be keen on it,” said Ellison.
With these new scholarships, UD looks to attract more students, particularly those who have a strong interest in certain majors or disciplines.
“It was designed to appeal to those students who might have departmental scholarship interests but really want to major in something very specific, like English, and to really allow them to benefit from their interest in something that we do so well,” said Christenberry. “They are tools to drive applications and potential yielding. It’s a way to generate enthusiasm for UD. It’s a way to recruit more applicants and generate more excitement, particularly in the areas where we don’t offer scholarships.”
However, if granted one of these scholarships, students will not be required to pursue a major in that area at UD.
“There will be no requirement to major in these fields,” said Ellison. “So if you win an English scholarship, full-tuition, you get it, and you maintain your minimum GPA eligibility, let’s say two years in, you say, ‘Actually, I really want to major in Theology’ instead, you don’t lose your scholarship.”
“There are no real parameters around the competition,” said Christenberry. “There are no parameters around who can apply or even who can win at all. As the scholarship grows and matures and develops, the scholarship competitions grow and mature and develop; it’s probable that we’ll start adding some parameters to it. ”
Christenberry and Ellison are hopeful these new scholarships will assist UD in its ability to continue to attract extraordinary students.
“The University of Dallas values all around academic excellence, personal individuality and creativity, as well as keen interests in particular fields of study; we’re looking for students who fit all of those different profiles to make up the complex mosaic of the University of Dallas student body, which is unlike any other in the country.” said Ellison.