Reasons to Give Scholarship Program

The University of Massachusetts Amherst strives to help as many students as possible with the financial obligations of their university education.

Over the past ten years, UMass Amherst has steadily increased our commitment to need-based aid, and the investment to help our students is truly significant. For the academic year 2010-11, we granted nearly $54.6 million in need-based aid, an astonishing increase of 77% over the past 5 years.

In the current economic environment, of course, the number of students who need financial support continues to grow. In fact, 20% of our student population comes from families at the lowest end of the economic spectrum -- nearly 2/3 of those earning less than $30,000 a year.

Increasingly, it is the presence or absence of a scholarship that may determine whether a student returns to campus for his or her junior and senior year, and realizes the dream of graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

A current sophomore from Massachusetts, for example, may have dug as deep as the family can go to garner the resources to return to UMass Amherst in the fall. Our staff in the Office of Financial Aid Services then reviews this Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) and assembles an aid package consisting of some grant money and student loans. The staff does everything it can to assist the student with his or her remaining educational financial obligations. Yet, after combining both the family's contribution and the financial aid package, it is very conceivable that a student still needs $1,958 to cover the cost of attending the University for the year.

At this point, the family has exhausted all financial resources and this remaining gap may prevent the student from returning to campus.

We are living in challenging times, but we must continue to invest in our future, in our students, in the reasons to give.

Your generous gift of $2,500 per year over three or four years to the Reasons to Give Scholarship Program will support scholarships in your name. As part of your commitment, you will receive updates and reports from the students you help. There has never been a greater need or a better reason to support our students.

Scholarship support at all levels provides critical aid to our students. A gift of any size to the Reasons to Give Scholarship Program can have an immediate impact for students in this important year.

Endowed Scholarship Program

Another way to support current and future UMass Amherst students is with an Endowed Scholarship: You can provide support for students in perpetuity by establishing an endowed scholarship in which a minimum gift of $27,500 is invested permanently, and the income earned each year is used to provide the annual award.

An endowed scholarship may carry your name, that of your family, or of another individual or group you would like to honor or memorialize.

Endowments offer you the opportunity to designate award criteria. You may want to assist students majoring in a particular field of study, or with specific interests and aspirations, or someone from your hometown.

You may base your support on academic merit or unmet financial need, or both. You can assist a recipient throughout his or her academic career or help a different student each year. The options are virtually limitless, and the choices are yours.