Incoming students can expect to receive more financial aid from OBU

Mikaleh Offerman, News Editor

Scholarships. When picking a college, it’s one of the most important aspects of deciding where to go.

Recently, OBU announced that it will be increasing the amount of scholarships that incoming students receive.

Previously, students could expect to receive at least $2,000 a year as a base. Now, OBU has bumped the lowest available scholarship to $5,000.

“Historically, OBU has increased financial aid for incoming students every other year,” Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Bruce Perkins said.

“The adjustment for Fall 2017 is in keeping with this schedule.”

This runs alongside of the increase in OBU’s tuition price.

“Current students will continue to receive aid per the policies that were in effect when they initially enrolled,” Perkins said.

“However, current students have also been paying lower costs than the incoming students. Thus, the out-of-pocket expenses will be similar for all students.”

Many students expressed concern over the changing scholarships for incoming students, but should know that this change does not adversely influence them.

OBU is ranked as one of the most affordable private Christian colleges in the country, according to the OBU website. It is listed as the only Oklahoma private university on the 50 Great Affordable Colleges in the Midwest.

Currently, overall cost of attending OBU runs 25 percent less than the national average.

While it may seem that OBU is too costly, there are many scholarships available through the university to assist students with financial aid.

“The criteria for academic scholarships has always been a student’s high school GPA and test score,” Perkins said.

“This past year we began weighting the high school GPA more than the test score because we believe the body of work through four years of high school should exert greater influence on an academic scholarship than four hours on a Saturday morning.”