{"id":1968,"date":"2019-01-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/blogtest\/spring-2019-admissions-update\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:39:40","slug":"spring-2019-admissions-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/spring-2019-admissions-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring 2019 Admissions Update"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Admissions\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Several bold admissions initiatives\u00a0have been key to our ongoing efforts\u00a0to both sustain our operations and\u00a0fuel our plans for growth.\u00a0Fall is the busiest season for recruiting\u00a0high school seniors. We have\u00a0eight recruiters in the Office of\u00a0Undergraduate Recruitment who\u00a0cover Tennessee and the greater\u00a0geographical area served by the\u00a0Regional Scholars program.\u00a0In\u00a0addition to working Preview Days\u00a0and the True Blue Tour, these\u00a0recruiters staffed tables at\u00a0128\u00a0recruitment\u00a0fairs<\/strong> across their\u00a0territories and made\u00a0hundreds of\u00a0visits\u00a0to high schools<\/strong> where they met\u00a0with students and parents, presented\u00a0the benefits of an MTSU degree, and\u00a0worked with high school teachers\u00a0and guidance counselors to spread\u00a0the True Blue word.<\/p>\n

In the Fall 2018 semester, we\u00a0added a\u00a0True Blue Tour<\/strong>\u00a0date to\u00a0serve the students here in\u00a0Rutherford County. In 14 tour\u00a0stops across Tennessee, Georgia,\u00a0Alabama, and Kentucky, we\u00a0met with 1,352 students and\u00a0an additional 1,890 family\u00a0members.\u00a0That\u2019s a\u00a013 percent\u00a0growth in student attendance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Our on-campus recruitment events\u00a0are our Preview Days, where\u00a0students get an extended tour and\u00a0meet with advisors, faculty, and the\u00a0dean.\u00a0This fall we had three Preview\u00a0Days where we hosted 691 students\u2014\u00a0again, a\u00a013 percent increase<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In addition to Preview Days,\u00a0Admissions provides two tours of\u00a0campus each weekday, as well as\u00a0regularly scheduled Saturday tours\u00a0throughout the semester (and\u00a0additional housing tours for students\u00a0interested in seeing on-campus\u00a0housing options).\u00a0We also schedule\u00a0special tours upon request.\u00a0This past\u00a0fall, our Blue Elite tour guides walked\u00a0approximately 1,010 miles while\u00a0providing tours of our beautiful\u00a0campus to\u00a0more than 7,000 guests<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

All of this hard work has resulted in\u00a0increases in applications.\u00a0We have\u00a0made scholarship offers to 2,054\u00a0students who had at least a 25 ACT\u00a0and 3.5 high school GPA.\u00a0That\u2019s more\u00a0than a\u00a017 percent increase\u00a0over offers\u00a0we made by this point last year.<\/p>\n

This spring, we will turn our attention to\u00a0converting those admitted students into\u00a0enrolled students and will be visiting\u00a0high schools with a particular focus on\u00a0meeting with high school juniors with\u00a0the objective of making them our\u00a0entering freshmen in 2020.<\/p>\n

Transfer\u00a0recruiters will be working with\u00a0community college partners to enroll\u00a0more transfer students than any other\u00a0institution in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

A Campus\u00a0without Borders\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Next, MTSU\u2019s\u00a0independent governing\u00a0board voted in December to expand\u00a0our\u00a0regional scholarship plan that offers\u00a0qualifying out-of-state scholars with\u00a0a discounted tuition rate. Previously\u00a0under the \u201cradius 250\u201d or \u201cR250\u201d plan,\u00a0qualifying applicants graduating from a\u00a0high school in a county within 250\u00a0miles of MTSU in any direction were\u00a0eligible to receive almost half off of\u00a0their out-of-state tuition costs. This\u00a0geography, which still applies, includes\u00a0portions of Illinois, Indiana, South\u00a0Carolina, and Ohio (Cincinnati). The\u00a0board\u2019s recent vote expanded the\u00a0out-of-state discount program to\u00a0ALSO<\/strong>\u00a0include qualifying students from\u00a0anywhere<\/strong>\u00a0in each of the eight states that\u00a0touch Tennessee\u00a0(even sharing a small\u00a0border like Missouri).<\/p>\n

Major Scholarship\u00a0Enhancement\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Finally, last October, I\u00a0announced that MTSU\u00a0would substantially increase the\u00a0value and broaden eligibility of its\u00a0Presidential Scholarship, a move that\u00a0will more than double the amount\u00a0awarded to some high-ability freshmen\u00a0who enroll for this fall.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Presidential Scholarship will\u00a0increase to $18,000 in total value<\/strong>,\u00a0paid out to eligible incoming freshmen\u00a0at $4,500 a year for four years.<\/p>\n

Students must have a 3.5 high school\u00a0GPA and score between 25 and 29\u00a0on the ACT to qualify for the\u00a0expanded award.<\/p>\n

MTSU guarantees the scholarship to\u00a0all students who apply to the University\u00a0before Dec. 1 each year and meet the\u00a0eligibility criteria.<\/p>\n

With these enhancements, the\u00a0Presidential Scholarship becomes\u00a0the\u00a0largest guaranteed academic\u00a0award given by any public university<\/strong>\u00a0in Tennessee to students with\u00a0these credentials.<\/p>\n

For Tennessee residents, when\u00a0combined with the Hope Lottery\u00a0Scholarship provided by the state, it\u00a0will substantially reduce the cost of\u00a0tuition for these high-ability students\u00a0to attend MTSU.<\/p>\n

The Presidential Scholarship previously\u00a0only paid $4,000 a year to students with\u00a0ACT scores of 28 and 29.<\/p>\n

The expanded\u00a0award now replaces two of MTSU\u2019s\u00a0previous guaranteed scholarships:\u00a0True Blue, which paid $3,000 a year to\u00a0students scoring 26 or 27 on the ACT,\u00a0and Provost, which paid out $2,000 a\u00a0year to students with an ACT score of\u00a025.<\/p>\n

MTSU will continue to offer students\u00a0making an ACT score of 30 and above,\u00a0along with at least a 3.5 high school\u00a0GPA, our guaranteed\u00a0Trustees\u00a0Scholarship,\u00a0which pays $20,000<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0four annual installments of $5,000.<\/p>\n

Students scoring at least 29 on the ACT\u00a0and with a high school GPA at 3.5 and\u00a0above can apply for MTSU\u2019s highest\u00a0academic award, the\u00a0Buchanan\u00a0Fellowship<\/strong>, a competitive and selective\u00a0full-tuition scholarship<\/strong>\u00a0through the\u00a0University Honors College.<\/p>\n

This expanded Presidential Scholarship\u00a0award will begin with freshmen entering\u00a0in the Fall 2019 semester.<\/p>\n

We feel strongly that MTSU, as a major\u00a0comprehensive university with a broad\u00a0array of top-notch majors, is\u00a0the best\u00a0choice for these high-ability students<\/strong>.\u00a0Enhancing this scholarship will make it\u00a0even more practical and affordable for\u00a0them to pursue their higher education\u00a0goals on our beautiful campus.<\/p>\n

The University reallocated existing\u00a0funds in our budget to pay for the\u00a0scholarship enhancements. MTSU\u00a0is also exploring additional changes\u00a0that could be in place as soon as the\u00a0Fall 2020 semester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Admissions\u00a0 Several bold admissions initiatives\u00a0have been key to our ongoing efforts\u00a0to both sustain our operations and\u00a0fuel our plans for growth.\u00a0Fall is the busiest season for recruiting\u00a0high school seniors. We have\u00a0eight recruiters in the Office of\u00a0Undergraduate Recruitment who\u00a0cover Tennessee and the greater\u00a0geographical area served by the\u00a0Regional Scholars program.\u00a0In\u00a0addition to working Preview Days\u00a0and the True Blue Tour, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3172,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/3172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}