KNOXVILLE — The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has opened a new Office of External Scholarships to help students apply for and win such prestigious post-graduate scholarships as the Rhodes and Fulbright.
Anne MayhewWith more highly qualified students entering UT each year, university officials say they are experiencing a growing interest in these top-tier scholarships.
Professor Emerita Anne Mayhew, who retired as vice chancellor for academic affairs in July 2006, is the director of the new office.
“Every indicator we have demonstrates that undergraduates on the Knoxville campus are getting better every year. The new Office of External Scholarships is meant to serve our students by providing them information and mentoring them on various prestigious scholarships such as the Rhodes, the Marshall and the Truman,” said Provost Robert Holub.
“I am confident that our students will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, and that UT will soon find that its students are frequent recipients of these important external awards,” he said.
It’s not too early for students to think about the scholarships. Freshmen and sophomores should begin planning now to complete pre-applications during their junior years. The pre-application deadline for spring 2009 graduates applying for scholarships for the 2009-10 academic year is March 31, 2008.
Mayhew said the office will help students not only with the well-known awards but also to uncover other kinds of scholarships.
“Material about a variety of scholarships will be available in our office, and I urge students to make an appointment to review this material and to talk with those of us working in the Office of External Scholarships,” she said.
Student quality has been on a sharp incline since the HOPE Scholarship debuted in 2004. Of this year’s freshman class, 33 percent had straight-A averages in high school, and the freshmen averaged 3.65 in core GPA and 26 on the ACT.
UT also has added new scholarship programs and opportunities for freshmen, enabling them to take better advantage of their time in college and to be prepared for award programs after graduation.
One new program is the Haslam Scholars, a premier honors program for 15 top students who will enroll for the first time this fall. More than 1,100 eligible high school seniors applied for the program.
The Office of External Scholarships is located in F101 Melrose Hall. For more information, go to http://externalscholarships.utk.edu/.
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Contacts:
Elizabeth Davis, UT media relations, (865) 974-5179, elizabeth.davis@tennessee.edu
Anne Mayhew, (865) 974-2479, amayhew@utk.edu
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