Cornell College announces 2nd year of Promise Scholarship for Iowans

Cornell College has announced the second year of its Promise Scholarship for Iowans, which in its first year provided $783,000 to 38 qualified Iowa students who entered Cornell this fall.

This year the program will offer all qualified Iowa high school students entering Cornell in fall 2016 a scholarship of at least $20,000 per student. The Promise Scholarship for Iowans is renewable for four years, bringing the total value to at least $80,000.

The scholarship helped 38 Iowa high school students attend Cornell. In all, Iowa students made up 20 percent of the college’s incoming class. That success showed how attractive Cornell College’s One Course At A Time curriculum and liberal arts education is to students from Iowa, said Colleen Murphy, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission.

“We have been educating Iowa’s future change-makers for more than 160 years,” she said. “We want to ensure that we’re helping students fulfill their promise and potential, and we believe this is not only good for our student body, but for the entire state.”

In addition to the grant, Iowa students may qualify for up to $5,000 annually from the state’s Iowa Tuition Grant to attend an Iowa private college. Cornell College is using the scholarship to support homegrown talent in the state of Iowa. Cornell’s student body currently represents 45 states and 18 foreign countries, with 17 percent from Iowa.

Cornell is nationally recognized for its value, including by Kiplinger’s, which included Cornell on its list of the 100 best values in private colleges for 2015, and the Fiske Guide to Colleges, which named Cornell College one of the 24 “Best Buys” among private colleges. Cornell is also one the “Colleges that Change Lives,” a select group of schools recognized for their academic quality and the exceptional opportunities they offer.