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HSFPP Update # 185—Yes, Studying Hard in Kentucky Really Pays Off

Message from Flashman: Postsecondary education has never been as important as it is today. As the cost of a college or university education increases at nearly double the inflation rate, teens will find a great value not only in earning KEES scholarship funds, but also in continuing to earn these funds while attending postsecondary school. To do that, they will need to study.

 

Web Site Pick of the Week:

http://cpe.ky.gov/news/releases/nr_20070330.htm

This page of the Council on Postsecondary Education and Kentucky Department of Education’s Web site features a press release, “Report Offers New Information about College Participation and Success of Kentucky High School Graduates.” It also includes a Student link that provides excellent information.

 

In the New$.... Yes, Studying Hard in Kentucky Really Pays Off

by Erin Burch, freshman finance major at the University of Kentucky

My parents used to say, “I worked my way through college.” Most students today would say this is nearly impossible. However, in Kentucky, to some degree, students can still say this. When I attended high school in Louisville, I had already learned that, by studying hard and getting excellent grades, I could earn scholarship money. I knew the Kentucky Education Excellence Scholarship (KEES) money I earned by working hard in school could significantly reduce the amount of money my parents or I would have to pay for my college education. I also knew that, by going to a state school in Kentucky, not only would I save money as an in-state student, but this also was the only way I could take advantage of the KEES Scholarship money I had earned, unless Kentucky colleges did not offer the academic program that I wanted.

But I didn’t know until this year that the scholarship money that I earned while in high school to help pay for my first year at UK would continue as long as I maintain a grade point average of at least 2.5. A few weeks ago I read an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader titled, “Ky. Students Not Making the Grade.” According to the story, “Nearly 40% of first-year students in Kentucky’s largest state financed college scholarship program don’t earn the 2.5 grade point average—halfway between a “B’ and a “C”—required to keep the grant a second year.” As the scholarship can come to as much as $2,500 a year for up to four years, students could be forgoing what is a tremendous amount of money for a young person.

In her article “40 Percent of Kentucky Grads Lose KEES Money,” Kentucky Kernel writer Jill Laster reports that “The Kentucky graduating class of 2004 had an average 2.28 GPA after their first semester in college, according to a report ... by the Council on Postsecondary Education.” Jim Applegate, vice president for academic affairs for the CPE and a former faculty member at the University of Kentucky for twenty years, responds, “To me, (2.28) is not a very high number.” It is understood that the freshman year of college is a time of transition, but a 2.5 GPA should not be too difficult to achieve. With the right study techniques every student should be able to attain this in college. Fortunately, if your GPA goes back above a 2.5 after your first year, you are able to regain the KEES scholarship, but that is still a lot of money lost within the first year. So all high school students need to make sure that studying remains their top priority. The amount of work you put in not only affects your grades, but also the amount of money in your bank account.

Just remember that the average undergraduate has $2,169 in credit card debt in 2004, according to Nellie Mae, the nation's largest maker of student loans. That figure jumps to $5,206 for those under the age of 25 who are graduate students. Just remember that, if you study hard in high school and earn the KEES scholarship, and you do the same in college, you probably will not have as much credit card debt. Yes, studying hard in Kentucky really does pay off!

Sources: (1) “Ky. Students Not Making the Grade: Low GPA’s cause many to lose state scholarships,” by Art Jester, Lexington Herald-Leader, 4/03/07.

(2) “40 Percent of Kentucky Grads Lose KEES Money,” by Jill Laster, Kentucky Kernel, 4/04/07.

(3) “College Students Get Wise About Credit Cards: 2004 Nellie Mae Study Finds Credit Card Usage and Debt Among Undergraduate Students on the Decline” [including “By Age: Older Students Have More Debt”], PRNewswire, 5/25/05.

 

Discussion Questions:

1.) What are some ways you plan on keeping at least a 2.5 GPA in college?

 

2.) Do you think that a 2.5 GPA is too high or too low an expectation for this scholarship? Why or why not?

 

3.) Name things that you could do with the amount of money that could be saved ($2500). Do you consider this worth studying hard?

 

 

Follow-up Activity:

Go to the Council on Postsecondary Education’s Web site to see how your high school compares with other high schools in your county, as well as three surrounding counties. This should give you some idea how students are doing.

http://www.cpe.ky.gov/news/reports/highschoolfeedback/

Questions:

1. How did your school compare? List names of high schools and results.

 

2. Why do you think students in your school did better or worse?

 

 

Kentucky High School Financial Planning Program
http://www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/hsfp
The purpose of the HSFPP financial updates, video lessons, and Web site is to assist county Extension agents, credit union educators, high school teachers, and parents who home school their teenagers so that they may improve the economic well-being of our teenagers; and also to show educators how the HSFPP, updates, and video lessons meet Kentucky core concepts. The Web site, updates, and video lessons are provided by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, and are free to all educators. The list of core concepts and order form for free program materials including the student guide and instructors manual can be found on the Kentucky HSFPP home page.
If you are not already on our listserv:
The video lessons are available only to members of our listserv and will not be posted to the HSFPP Web site because of the timeliness of the information. If you would like to receive our video lessons, which are sent to our listserv biweekly, on alternate weeks from these updates, please sign up at the following page of our Web site: http://www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/HSFP/response.htm.