NCSSM juniors won’t see free tuition to UNC

The state budget is phasing out the sometimes controversial UNC-system school tuition waiver for N.C. School of Science and Math students.

The graduating class of 2010 will be the last class eligible for a waiver. Graduates of the residential magnet high school already at a university and those accepted next year will still be granted the waiver.

The tuition waiver, which was first granted in 2003 with the hope of keeping top-notch students in the state, cost the state an estimated $3.1 million dollars for the 2008-09 academic year.

Lauren Everhart, communications director for NCSSM, said that since the implementation of the grant, 80 percent of NCSSM graduates enrolled in an in-state university. Prior to the grant, only 55 percent stayed in the state.

“Based on that evidence, we have reason to believe that the number will go back down,” Everhart said.

The waiver had been under scrutiny since it was first granted. Legislators finally decided to cut it this year in an attempt to help close the $4.7 billion state deficit.

Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, said in a statement that it was unfair to provide a merit scholarship to students of one particular high school and not grant the rest of the state’s students the same opportunity.

“There are about 940 students in the state who are salutatorian or valedictorian of their high schools who don’t get automatic free tuition,” Stam said.

Everhart said there was great relief among recent graduates and incoming seniors when the budget was passed, but the class of 2011 is still trying to figure out what this means for them.

Students apply to NCSSM during their sophomore year and, if accepted, attend for their junior and senior years. At any given time, there are about 650 students enrolled in the academically rigorous program.

Daryn Mitchell, a junior from Ahoskie, said the tuition grant was one of the reasons he applied to NCSSM in the first place.

“I was really disappointed,” he said. “I really want to still apply to Carolina, but now I’m also looking at schools across the country.”

Mitchell said if he enrolls in an out-of-state university, he probably will not move back to North Carolina after college.

Everhart said NCSSM is working on partnership programs with UNC-system schools to provide new incentives for students such as Mitchell, who were disappointed by the repeal of the waiver, to enroll at universities in North Carolina.

Everhart said the number of applicants to NCSSM increased significantly in 2004 after the tuition waiver was granted. With the repeal of the tuition waiver, NCSSM officials are unsure how it will affect the number of applicants to the school next year.

“It’s too early to say at this point, but the opportunities here go far beyond the tuition waiver,” she said.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu