Jameson Curtis, a junior finance major from St. George, studies in the beautiful St. George weather. Sydney Johnson says Dixie State University needs to offer more scholarship options for the summer semester. Photo by Bailey Chamberlain.
Registration for the summer semester at Dixie State University is approaching, and I wonder why there are not more scholarship options for the summer semester and why my academic scholarship cannot be applied toward the summer semester.
More scholarship options should be offered for students who wish to take summer classes, as they are generally the overachievers who want to get ahead in their education and continue learning at DSU year-round. There may also be students who are unable to partake in the fall or spring semester because of work or family responsibilities, and the summer semester may be their only option.
If these students are eligible for an academic scholarship, they will, unfortunately, miss out on the opportunity to use it due to the academic scholarship guidelines at DSU.
“Unfortunately, there are not many scholarships that can be utilized during the summer semester,” said Joni Hale, assistant director of scholarships. “I do not foresee any changes to the summer academic scholarship eligibility.”
Hale said DSU does not allow students to use academic scholarships during the summer because of the school’s scholarship budget. She said this makes it fair for each recipient, but it’s not because if a student is planning to graduate early, they can not use their academic scholarship in the summer and will have leftover scholarship money.
I am a full-time student at DSU taking 21 credits. I will be partaking in DSU’s summer semester, but I have been unsuccessful in finding scholarships that can apply toward it. Since I will be graduating early, I will have two semesters left over when I graduate. I had hopes that I would be able to use my academic scholarship money from these two semesters and apply it to the summer, so it was hard to hear that my leftover scholarship money will be of no use to me.
Along with not being able to use academic scholarships in the summer, there are also very few summer semester scholarship options. There is one community scholarship, the American Association of University Women scholarship, but other scholarships’ requirements specify that their scholarship will need to be used in the spring or fall semester only.
DSU needs to allow for more scholarship opportunities in the summer because it could increase their summer semester enrollment rates, as well as give students an opportunity to use their leftover scholarship money from graduating early.