A Good Use of Funds

Posted on May 31, 2007    Posted by John Scalzi

As an alum of the University of Chicago, and one who depended on a scholarship for much of his tuition, this makes me happy:

A graduate of the University of Chicago gave an anonymous donation of $100 million to his alma mater, marking the largest single donation given to an Illinois university. The money will be used to give full scholarships to about 800 lower-income students each academic year. The grants, called Odyssey Scholarships, will also pay partial tuition for another 400 of the 4,400 undergraduate students at the institution and fund a summer enrichment program for about 50 lower-income students before their first year of college.

I would have qualified. Oh, yes.

And more to the point, I credit my time at the U of C as being of critical importance to shaping my success out in the real world. I wouldn’t be the same person — and I doubt I would have the same success — if I hadn’t gone through its halls. It’s a hell of a school, but it’s definitely not cheap, and I think it would be a bad thing if kids like me, who would be right for the U of C (and for whom the U of C would be right for) had to cross it off their list because they simply couldn’t afford it. So it’s nice that the decision to attend is becoming easier for them.