Scholarship has no minimum GPA

College Board starts aid for low-ranking students

The College Board, the nonprofit that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement tests, is launching a $25 million scholarship program intended to help students at the bottom of the class as much it does the valedictorians.

College Board President David Coleman told USA TODAY the new College Board Opportunity Scholarship has no minimum grade-point average or SAT score requirement.

Instead, students become eligible for scholarships by working their way through a checklist of essential steps in the college application process – such as building a list of schools they’re interested in attending, practicing for the SAT, improving their scores and filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The program is intended to nudge more students, particularly low-income youths who might fear that college is financially out of reach, to apply for college.

Half of the scholarships will be set aside for students whose families earn less than $60,000 annually.

All U.S. high school students – including undocumented immigrants – are eligible for the scholarships.

“We’re in a very, very dangerous situation in this country, where many students don’t see college as part of their future,” Coleman said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. “A college education is so important to future success – future economic success.”

Indeed, Americans are increasingly questioning whether the cost of education is worth it. Forty-nine percent of Americans surveyed last year said they believed earning a four-year degree will lead to a good job and higher lifetime earnings, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Forty-seven percent said they didn’t.

Just 37 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 agreed a four-year degree was worth the cost. Fifty-seven percent disagreed.

At the same time, U.S. colleges are inching toward a pivot point as millennials, who flooded campuses over the last decade, are aging out of their college years.