Performance-based scholarships
Program basics
- Provide financial aid to students conditional on their achieving certain academic benchmarks
- Aid money is meant to cover 15–25 percent of students’ unmet financial need (the difference between their tuition costs and already existing financial aid).
- Disbursed to students, who can freely decide how to use the funds
Strength of evidence
Evidence level: Promising (Third-highest tier)
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Promising (Third-highest tier)
Performance-based scholarships are not yet in any of the major clearinghouses, but has demonstrated positive results in an independent, high-quality evaluation conducted by ____
Target population
Students enrolled in post-secondary education
Program cost
$1,000 to $4,500 maximum scholarship amounts for two, three, or four semesters
Implementation locations
- Not available
Dates active
2003
Outcomes and impact
- Increased academic achievement
- Increased degree completion
- Indeterminate effect on persistence
Keys to successful implementation
- Note: This content is under review.
- Work directly with staff and organizations who have high contact with students to recruit students to participate in the program. Follow up can be conducted both in-person and digitally.
- Build or procure a system with clear, transparent criteria to verify student eligibility for scholarship disbursements, covering everything from the source of student data to rules for extensions if a student becomes ineligible.
- Prioritize scheduling and releasing scholarship disbursements in a timely and accurate manner, including regular dialogue with necessary administrative partners, such as a financial aid office.
- Disburse payments in a way that is distinct from other forms of financial aid, but that still minimizes costs to students (such as bank fees).
- Develop and implement a communications strategy that distinguishes the program as an ongoing incentive – one that needs to be continually earned separately from a traditional scholarship. Communication, therefore, should occur both before the program and at regular intervals throughout it.
- Evaluate the health of the program at regular intervals - such as at the halfway point and ends of each semester – to ensure that eligibility criteria are reasonable and that the scholarship disbursement process operates fairly and smoothly.