LOW-INCOME STUDENTS CAN NOW ATTEND THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO FOR FREE

The University of Chicago in Hyde Park created a new financial assistance program in 2018 as a way to diversify its student population that provides free tuition, fees and housing to low-income students with household incomes $60,000 per year or less. Photo credit: Courtesy of the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago in Hyde Park created a new financial assistance program in 2018 as a way to diversify its student population that provides free tuition, fees and housing to low-income students with household incomes $60,000 per year or less. Photo credit: Courtesy of the University of Chicago

Low-Income Students Can Now Attend the University of Chicago for Free

BY WENDELL HUTSON

Contributing Writer

A relatively new program at the University of Chicago allows low-income students to receive free tuition if their household income is $125,000 per year or less.

And more financial assistance is available to students with household incomes $60,000 per year or less. Those students receive free housing and fees plus tuition as part of their financial aid by the school. And for students who are the first in their families to attend college, they receive a $20,000 scholarship over four years and a guaranteed paid internship for their first summer. Free housing is a big deal because the university requires all students to live on campus during their first two years.

According to UChicago data, last school year, 34,643 students applied for the Empower Initiative and 2,137 were accepted of which 1,726 actually enrolled. The ethnic makeup of students who applied was 22 percent Asian; 16 percent Hispanic; 16 percent international and 10 percent black. Most applicants, 52 percent were men, and the remaining 48 percent were women.

The university’s current population is 16,227 with 6,310 undergraduates and 9,917 graduate students. However, the ethnic makeup of students was unavailable at press time.

When you consider tuition at the university for the 2019-2020 school year is $57,642 and housing is another $17,004, getting financial assistance to wipe out both expenses is a huge help, said Veronica Hauad, a deputy director of Admissions for the university.

She added that one goal for the UChicago Empower Initiative, which was started in 2018 thanks to a $100 million anonymous donation, is to attract and encourage more minority students to pursue an undergraduate degree at the Hyde Park institution, 5801 S. Ellis Ave.

“For years the university has been working to further diversify its student population. First, we created the Odyssey Scholarship, which allowed students to receive paid internships as well as other financial assistance. And so this new initiative is an extension to the help we’ve already been providing to students,” said Hauad. “What a lot of people might not know is that the University of Chicago is a liberal arts college and is also a loan free school. No undergraduate student at the university has to take out a student loan to cover costs.”

But the Empower Initiative does more than pay for a student’s undergraduate studies once accepted. It also gives high school seniors the option of whether they want to submit their standardized tests scores like the ACT or SAT with their admissions application.

“If they want us to consider their test scores, they can send it but it is not a requirement for admission into the university,” explained Hauad. “And we don’t put a lot of emphasis on grade point averages either. We are more concerned with their overall transcript, courses they have taken, and a series of essays we would ask from them.”

Making test scores optional is good news for Malik Hawkins, an 18-year-old senior at a South Side alternative high school.

“I’ve never been a good test taker but I know how to do the work. I ended up at an alternative high school after my other school, John Hope, shutdown,” said Hawkins. “I struggled when I was there so rather than go to another ‘traditional’ school, I chose this school to get extra help before I go to college. I want to be a computer engineer because I like playing video games.”

Hawkins said he never dreamed of going to college because he was not ‘smart’ like other kids. But the thought of actually going to a top college for free now has him excited.

But too many low-income families have the misconception of thinking that attending a top university is impossible because of costs and admissions requirements, and James Nondorf, dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at the university, said both are not true.

“Today, many underrepresented students, families and school advisers perceive top-ranked colleges as inaccessible without the means to help students stand out in the application process,” Nondorf said, in a statement. “The UChicago Empower Initiative levels the playing field, allowing first-generation and low-income students to use technology and other resources to present themselves as well as any other college applicant.”

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