Comments on: SVSU, MSU set to honor Michigan Promise Scholarship

By: Beth

Beth — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:13:16 +0000

I am a third year student at GVSU. I didn’t receive forewarning that we would need to pay for the promise scholarship of the state cancelled it. I was supposed to receive $1000 per semester this year. In october I received an e-mail from Grand Valley telling me that I had 2 months to pay back the $1000 that they had already given to me. I work as well as attend school full time and there was no possible way for me to pay back this money on the schedule that they demanded it. They wanted $500 dollars a month this is more than I make after bills and taxes. If GVSU is serious about helping their students in the wake of this unfortunate situation and the actually need the money back, then they for one should be more understanding in the policies that they set. Right now the way they are handling the situation not only shows that education is unimportant to the state, but also to them as a school as well.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:33:58 +0000

This is great for those students. My son is at U of M and they are NOT honoring the promise. I am very disappointed.

For those students needing scholarship help, we did find many useful tips here: http://www.how2winscholarships.com.

By: Katie Boshans

Katie Boshans — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:26:57 +0000

Senior year of high school, I was offered a scholarship for $3,000 a year from SVSU, while Central offered me nothing. Still, I chose CMU because I fell in love with the campus and the programs they offered, and the CMU Promise sounded like a pretty good deal. Reading this article just adds to the growing pile of reasons why I’m starting to wonder if I made the right decision coming to CMU.

I’m at junior status this year, and because the state cut the Michigan Promise Scholarship I lost out on $2,000 that I was counting on. To make ends meet I’m taking half of my credits at MMCC this year. I know I’m not alone, because my classes at MMCC are full of guest students from CMU in the same situation.

With both the CMU Promise and Michigan Promise Scholarship gone, less freshman will start coming in, which means less money from residence halls and tuition. Add that to the number of current students supplementing their education with community college transfer credits, and the university is losing money.

I wonder if they realize just how much of our money and our confidence they’re missing out on in the long run by not following SVSU and MSU’s example.

By: Debra Page

Debra Page — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:40:26 +0000

CMU needs to help out in some way with the Promise Scholarship. I have two kids at CMU who both received the Promise scholarship and now in November I have to try to come up with 2000.00 that I do not have. At minimum at least allow a payment plan into next semester to give parents time to come up with the money. One of my kids got a nasty email about being behind and I’m hearing that they can’t sign up for classes with everyone else until I pay up! I’m afraid they may need to just come home and go to community college. I’ve gotten no communication from CMU regarding what they will and will not do and when I called the financial aid office they were actually rude.

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:07:26 +0000

This makes me furious that some schools will pay for it and others like CMU wont. I had to take less credits this semester because I was not informed I wouldn’t be collecting scholarship money until it was too late to sign up for loans for the semester.