Scholarship Offers to Maryland Grads Approach Last Year’s Record
Class of 2016 Receives More Than $1.3 Billion in Offers
BALTIMORE – Maryland’s class of 2016 received more than $1.3 billion in college scholarship offers, according to the results of a new Maryland State Department of Education survey. Students received offers totaling just short of $1.32 billion in scholarship offers, nearly equaling the class of 2015’s record total.
“Students increasingly need educational opportunities beyond high school, be it college or career training, and that can be expensive. Scholarships can help students pursue their dreams,” said Dr. Karen Salmon, State Superintendent of Schools.
The survey found that 18,819 graduates received offers last year – about one-third of the 2016 graduating class of 56,954. The scholarships included more than 150 National Merit Finalists and more that 350 scholarship offers from Ivy League institutions.
For more than a decade, MSDE has been collecting data on college and university scholarship offers received by its graduates, and over the years the total dollar amount of those offers has risen dramatically. Maryland graduates received less than $500 million in scholarship offers in 2007, for example, and passed the $1 billion threshold for the first time in 2013.