- Since program inception in 2004, a smaller percentage of students in our public universities have needed remedial math and English courses.
- More South Dakota HS grads are scoring 24 or better on the ACT.
- Our universities are keeping more high-achieving students into their fourth year of studies.
Participating Institution | BHSU | DSU | NSU | SDSMT | SDSU | USD | Total Regental |
2004-05 | 36 | 23 | 30 | 64 | 339 | 201 | 693 |
2005-06 | 52 | 30 | 35 | 77 | 361 | 172 | 727 |
2006-07 | 56 | 46 | 45 | 72 | 387 | 204 | 810 |
2007-08 | 61 | 48 | 53 | 101 | 459 | 239 | 961 |
2008-09 | 65 | 36 | 50 | 97 | 484 | 228 | 960 |
2009-10 | 52 | 45 | 51 | 92 | 471 | 205 | 916 |
6 Year Total | 322 | 228 | 264 | 503 | 2501 | 1249 | 5067 |
6 Year % | 5.24% | 3.71% | 4.30% | 8.19% | 40.71% | 20.33% | 82.47% |
6yr% of RegSys | 6.35% | 4.50% | 5.21% | 9.93% | 49.36% | 24.65% | 100.00% |
Recipients Funded Across First Five Academic Years
Source: South Dakota Board of Regents
I dug up the fall enrollment numbers and found that DSU has the second-lowest proportion of Opportunity Scholars among this year's freshmen. Only Black Hills State has a smaller percentage of Opportunity Scholars among the class of 2013.
School | 2009-10 |
BHSU | 5.0% |
DSU | 8.2% |
NSU | 9.9% |
SDSMT | 19.4% |
SDSU | 14.9% |
USD | 10.2% |
Total Regental | 11.8% |
as Percentage of Incoming Freshmen
In a survey of Opportunity Scholarship recipients from the first two years of the program (the ones who've had time to graduate and head for the real world), 68% of respondents said they were staying South Dakota for work or grad school. The state drawing the largest chunk (5%) of our sharpest grads is Nebraska (mostly thanks to grad school at UNL or Creighton). But 32% of our Opportunity Scholarship recipients who get South Dakota degrees go elsewhere.
Student perceptions of the impact of the Opportunity Scholarship give a mixed picture. Consider the responses to these two questions in the BOR survey:
- Receiving the Opportunity Scholarship was a critical factor in my choice to attend an institution in South Dakota.
- Disagree: 104(20%)
- Neutral: 127(26%)
- Agree: 268(54%)
- I would have attended an institution outside of South Dakota without the financial support I received from the scholarship program.
- Disagree: 254(51%)
- Neutral: 141(28%)
- Agree: 104(21%)
CAH-
ReplyDeleteThe responses to the first question may indicate that the scholarship is critical when the decision is whether to attend a university or not due to financial constraint. The response to the second question may confirm this because even without the scholarship, attending an out of state school is quite expensive so even without the scholarship it wouldn't be financially possible.