Northwestern will join up with the non-profit Questbridge next fall to provide additional annual scholarships to low-income students, the university announced Tuesday.
Each year 25 students accepted through Questbridge’s National College Match program will receive full four-year scholarships, and up to 50 others will pay a discounted tuition.
“Designed for high-achieving low-income students,” the college match program looks to “maximize the admissions outcomes” for “outstanding” students who face “economic obstacles,” according to Questbridge’s Web site. Northwestern will join 20 other of the program’s partner colleges, such as the University of Chicago, Yale and Rice. More than 700 low-income students were accepted through the program into its partner colleges and awarded scholarship money in 2007, according to its Web site.
In January, the university announced that it would replace loans with grants for the school’s most financially needy, and capped federal student loans at $20,000. The university expects these changes to affect 1,400 undergraduates, or roughly 18 percent of the student population.
About 60 percent of Northwestern’s population receives financial aid, and the university spends about $70 million on grants and scholarships each year.