College Scholarships, Grants & Loans

Sunday, October 26, 2008

NJ STARS program to be amended

On Thursday, the New Jersey State Assembly Higher Education Committee approved Assembly Bill No. 3373, which will make some major changes to the NJ STARS and NJ STARS II Programs. The changes are expected to save the state several million dollars per year. Some of the major changes include:

NJ STARS

Students will have to graduate in the top 15% of their class, instead of the current 20%.

Students will need to pass a college placement test to determine the student's readiness. If the student doesn't pass, they will need to address the deficiencies during senior year to be eligible for the NJ STARS. Even if unable to correct the deficiencies during senior year, they will be given until Sept 1 of the following year to demonstrate the necessary skills before losing eligibility.

The scholarship will allow students to take up to 18 credits per semester, up from 15. The new law will also consider students eligible even if they need fewer than 12 credits in their final semester. Students earning college credits during high school will now be allowed to use them under the NJ STARS program.

NJ STARS II

NJ STARS community college graduates will need to have a 3.25 GPA to be eligible for the NJ STARS II scholarship. Curerntly, the requirement is a 3.00 GPA.

Family income will now need to be under $250,000 to be eligible. The original proposal was to have a $100,000 cap, but there wasn't widespread support for that.

NJ STARS II covers tuition and fees now. The proposed changes will only cover tuition. An exception will be those students eligible for a Tuition Aid Grant. Tuition and fees will be covered for these students.

The scholarship amount will now depend on the student's GPA, as well. Students who maintained a GPA greater than 3.25 and less than 3.50 will be eligible for a scholarship of up to $3,000 per semester; students who maintained a cumulative GPA
equal to or greater than 3.50, will be eligible for a scholarship of up to $3,500 per semester. For senior year eligibility, the amount awarded will depend on the student's GPA during the third year.

The bill still needs to be passed by state assembly and Governor Corzine.

Recently updated pages at College Scholarships, Loans & Grants
College Loan News
New Jersey Scholarships

Technorati Tags:

Labels: , , , , ,

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home