UT Aims to Keep Students in State

The University of Tennessee has initiated a new scholarship program attempting to keep Tennessee's top high school graduates from attending out-of-state colleges and universities.

The Trustee Scholarship program, which was announced last week, awards a $1,000 scholarship to Tennessee students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, receive high grade point averages or score very well on college entrance exams.

Similar programs have been enacted in Georgia and Texas.

"We're focused on keeping the best and brightest Tennesseans in state," said University of Tennessee President J. Wade Gilley.

Gilley said the scholarship could help keep the university from losing top in-state students to schools such as UNC or the University of Florida.

The scholarships will be available next fall to incoming freshmen at the three UT campuses - Knoxville, Chattanooga and Martin.

The scholarships also are available to students with a 3.5 GPA or who scored 26 or above on the American College Testing exam. Students must maintain a 3.25 GPA for the award to be renewed.

The program will be funded for five years with money from UT's licensing agreement with a local bank. The contract is worth $2.3 million per year.

Dr. Katherine High, UT vice president and chief of staff, said decisions on funding the program after five years will be based on incoming student numbers.

High said diverting licensing money into the fund is being considered.

She said the program is designed to improve UT's student body percentage of students who graduated in the top 10 percent of their classes.

High added that the university wants to attract 50 percent of Tennessee seniors graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school class and hopes to achieve its goal by 2005-07.

In 1999, UT-Knoxville attracted only 25 percent, while the number has jumped to 33 percent this fall.

But UNC - which is often considered to be one of the best public universities in the country - doesn't fare much better in attracting the top 10 percent of students.

Barbara Polk, UNC senior associate director of undergraduate admissions, said UNC receives about 30 percent of N.C. students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their classes.

She said UNC often loses top in-state students to universities like Harvard.

But Polk said UNC is working hard to attract the state's best students.

"We want to bring the University into their homes, as much as possible and cause them to really think about Carolina as more then just a `back-up' institution."

Polk said UNC intensified recruiting efforts last year by holding information meetings around the state, sending out mailings about the new Robertson Scholarship program - a joint scholarship between UNC and Duke University - and holding recruitment telethons.

"It is important to have the top students in North Carolina come together at Chapel Hill," she said. "They help stimulate the academic climate on campus and, in and of themselves, are an educational experience."

The State and National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.