Scholarships see varying yields for '12

The passage of the financial aid initiative and the increase of scholarship benefits brought changes to this year's class of scholars.

The Benjamin N. Duke and the Robertson Scholarships both experienced increases in yield, to 94 percent and 86 percent, from approximately 69 and 64 percent, respectively, but the Angier B. Duke scholarship-often referred to by Duke students as the most prestigious academic scholarship-saw its yield drop to 40 percent.

This year marked a benchmark for college opportunities for those in financial need. Duke's peer institutions, such as Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, have completely eliminated loans and have said they are prepared to offer students from lower-income families better packages than before.

Alexander Rosenberg, director of the A.B. Duke scholarship and R. Taylor Cole professor of philosophy, said these changes in financial aid may have impacted Duke's scholarship yield.

"We assumed [a good yield] before Harvard and Yale changed their [aid] formulas," he said.

The B.N. Duke was also affected by the changes in financial aid, with several prospective students declining a scholarship interview because of large financial aid offers from Ivy League institutions, said Don Taylor, program director of the B.N. Duke and Trinity scholarships.

"It eliminates money from the equation and makes them decide where they would like to attend college," said Taylor, who is also an associate professor of public policy. "The merit scholarships at Duke may have more of a yield affect on more middle-income kids than low-income kids."

Taylor added that Duke's pledge to cover room, board and mandatory fees in addition to tuition most likely helped pull more students than usual.

"I don't really feel like we really could've improved [the recruitment weekend] at all," he said. "We still got a low yield because the institution lacks the same prestige as others."

Some high school seniors who turned down the A.B. Duke said they appreciated the opportunity, but they could not see themselves at the University.

"You're talking about schools that are undoubtedly ranked in the top 10, no matter what ranking you're looking at," said Rebecca Chung, a student who declined the A.B. Duke and will attend Stanford University. "People are going to say, 'Yeah, Harvard is Harvard and Princeton is Princeton,' but there's no real difference."

Current A.B. Duke scholar Kevin Troy, a senior, said the scholarship provides him with opportunities that he would have lacked elsewhere.

"There's a network of pretty interesting A.B. [Duke] alumni who are always willing to answer questions and help out with things," he said.

Trends in yields are hard to predict, however, as the numbers of scholarships are relatively small, Rosenberg said.

"It's noise-it's not like you can calculate a reliable figure that's within 5 percent," he said.

Regardless of the cause, however, Robertson Program President Tony Brown said he is impressed by the incoming class.

"I think the thing we aspire for is excellence for our scholars, for ourselves and for the program, so I'm very proud of the results," he said.