The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has been so successful in the Natural State colleges are getting ready for an increase in students. The Department of Higher Education say 6 times more students have applied for the Academic Challenge Scholarship this year than last because of increased funds from the Scholarship Lottery. It could generate more than $100 million in scholarship money in its first year.
Tyrone Sanders wants to use Academic Challenge Scholarship money to go to a four-year school after Pulaski Tech. The scholarship will let him use his work income for other necessities.
Sanders said, "Even though I'm going to school to better myself that doesn't stop the electric bill or the rent from needing to be paid."
Schools like Pulaski Tech, which saw a 13 percent enrollment increase from last spring until now, are always trying to keep up with growth. That's why the school is building its new Business Technology Center with more space for classes and meetings. Administrators at Pulaski Tech say want to keep class sizes around 30 students so they add new classes as needed.
Tim Jones with Pulaski Tech said, "When you have more and more people coming on and you don't have a brand new building to put a lot of students in every semester, you have to get creative with the space and the time."
So the school also accommodates all the students with online courses and automated systems for administrative tasks like class registration.
While there's no way to tell exactly how many more students will go to school this fall the Department of Higher Ed says about 24,000 students applied for the Academic Challenge Scholarship so far this year compared to about 4,000 in the same time frame in 2009.
Jones said, "We're not in a mode to grow for growth's sake but it's important that we realize what the realities are out in the community and react to those."
That increase in scholarship applicants sounds like a lot. But those with the Department of Higher Education believe a lot of those people would have gone to college anyway on their own dime. This just helps them. That's why the department believes Arkansas schools will be able to handle the increase. To find out how to apply for the Academic Challenge Scholarship, visit
www.adhe.edu.
