A sharp drop in the amount of funding awarded to the University of Wisconsin based on the number of National Merit and All-State Scholars enrolled has some officials concerned UW is having trouble attracting high-achieving students.
The Regent Scholars Fund — which awards $250 to UW for each in-state National Merit or All-State Scholar that attends the university — has dropped from $40,000 to $26,000 in the last 10 years in the amount awarded to UW on an annual basis.
The University Honors Committee allocates money from the Regent Fund, which is funded by the National Merit Scholarship Program and the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship, to honors programs on campus, Assistant Vice Provost Laurie Mayberry said.
The Regent Fund provides half of the funding for the College of Letters and Science’s sophomore summer research apprenticeship program, which affords undergraduate honors students the opportunity to work side-by-side with faculty in a research setting, Associate Director of the College of Letters and Science Honors Program Jeff Shokler said.
“With the Regent Scholars fund being smaller, less students are admitted to this remarkable undergraduate experience,” Shokler said.
University Honors Committee student member Claire Lynch said to earn the funding, some universities keep overall tuition high and offer attractive scholarships to qualified students.
UW, however, keeps tuition low for all students, making it less affordable for National Merit and All-State Scholar students, who then choose other universities.
Lynch said it is a shame there is less money to fund UW honors programs, but if she had to choose between a drop in the Regent Fund and maintaining the current tuition model, she would chose to maintain the current tuition model since it benefits all students rather than only an elite few.
However, Lynch added the Honors Committee was flabbergasted at the extreme drop in National Merit and All-State Scholars this year.
Lynch said there is a distinct possibility these students were incorrectly tracked, so there could be more scholar students at UW than the Regent Scholars Fund believes.
University Honors Committee Chair Robert Ray said the decrease in the Regent Fund does not really affect UW students because in the grand scheme of university funding the fund is not a very large pool of money.
He added he does not think UW should be competing with other universities to actively recruit Scholar students since the university already attracts elite students. Whether students are National Merit Scholars or All-State Scholars does not really matter, Ray said.
Shokler said with almost two-thirds of UW students graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school class and with the College of Letters and Science graduating the same amount of honors students as past years, UW students are as phenomenal as ever.
Lynch said UW is still attracting high-achieving students, but maybe not the very top. Yet Lynch thinks in terms of academic achievement, there is not much of a difference between salutatorians and those who graduated fourth.
“I don’t believe for a second that students who come to UW are of a lesser breed,” Lynch said.
