Scholarship for ‘top-achieving’ has set its deadline
High school seniors: This afternoon, between the first helping of turkey and the last piece of pumpkin pie, make yourself this holiday note.
You and your family have until March 1 to officially give thanks for the PROMISE scholarship.
That’s the word from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and its interim chancellor, Sarah Armstrong Tucker, who announced the application deadline last week.
The scholarship is administered across the state’s 55 counties.
Top-achieving students who qualify for the merit-based offering can receive up to $4,750 a year to cover college tuition and other costs.
Tucker told The Dominion Post last spring that “top-achieving” is the phrase that pays — in a state where first-generation college students still populate college campuses every fall as freshmen.
The high school seniors who have worked hard in the pursuit of PROMISE should be given every right to qualify, Tucker said, pandemic or no.
“We want to make sure they are able to pursue their college dreams in the midst of this emergency,” she said then.
“We hope this gives students and their families greater peace of mind as they continue planning for their futures.”
More than 6,700 applied last year, but current numbers are down — about 2,300 applicants thus far — and, like everything, Tucker said, it comes down to the pandemic.
Are you in school or learning from home?
What about your sports teams if you’re an athlete or a musician missing concerts and other performances — if you’re a practitioner of the arts?
And that’s just part of the uncertainty, she said during the meeting.
Many high school seniors, she said, are now on unmarked paths due to the pandemic.
There are new issues with food insecurity.
And all-of-a-sudden money worries, if a parent has lost a job because of a coronavirus-fueled shutdown.
There’s that, plus the genuine concern of someone they love contracting the very virus roiling across the state at present.
The best way to cut through it all, Tucker said, is by going to cfwv.com/promise for particulars on how to apply.
There, you’ll learn about the FASFA — the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Submitting your FASFA by the March 1 deadline also buys time for your ACT or SAT, she said.
Getting the application in by then means you’ll have until Aug. 31 to submit the test scores, which are part of the admission requirement.
Like Tucker, Monongalia County Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said he doesn’t want to see a deserving (and driven) student miss out on the promise of PROMISE.
He echoed the interim chancellor’s thoughts on academic and financial peace of mind.
“These kids are our high-fliers,” he told The Dominion Post previously.
“They’re stressed out on a good day.”
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