Quinnipiac Joins In Tuition Promise

Another private university is joining in New Haven’s initiative to help more public-school students graduate from in-state colleges without sinking into debt.

Quinnipiac University announced that, beginning next fall, it will be making at least $25,000 in scholarships — roughly the equivalent of a full semester’s tuition — available each year to local high school grads through the New Haven Promise program. Quinnipiac will also guarantee them an on-campus job during the school year.

Judy Olian, the university president, made that announcement of more financial support for ​“deserving students in the New Haven public schools” at a Wednesday morning press conference at City Hall. The university currently enrolls 42 students from New Haven, all but five of them public school graduates.

“This removes an important barrier for students who might face financial obstacles,” said Olian, who arrived in the job earlier this year. ​“It offers access to those who might not be able to afford Quinnipiac University otherwise.”

Nearing its 10-year anniversary, New Haven Promise awards full-ride scholarships to Connecticut’s public colleges for local students who maintain a 3.0 GPA, keep 90 percent attendance, stay out of trouble and complete 40 hours of community service by graduation.

The program, which is funded through a collaboration between The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital, also offers $2,500 annual scholarships to students who go to Connecticut’s private colleges, including 17 students who’ve already graduated from Quinnipiac.

With Wednesday’s announcement, Quinnipiac joins Albertus Magnus College in going beyond that with more institutional aid.

Patricia Melton, Promise’s executive director, said that offer of extra aid has already made a difference at Albertus Magnus, where the number of Promise scholars who decided to enroll nearly tripled in just the first year.

Erving Xochipiltecatl, a Promise scholar who graduated from Hill Regional Career High School in 2011 and Quinnipiac University in 2015, said he expects the same thing would happen at his alma mater.

When he was applying, Xochipiltecatl said he felt at a competitive disadvantage to those ​“within better resources.” They’d had access to more Advanced Placement classes and to SAT tutors.

Even after he was admitted, Xochipiltecatl said, he sometimes felt ​“out of place” during his freshman year. He called it a ​“culture shock.” He thought about dropping out, ​“as silly as it sounds,” he now says.

But an advisor helped him approach his professors after class and develop better work habits. He joined groups with other classmates to study.

After that, Xochipiltecatl said he felt ​“better equipped and better prepared” to keep up and eventually succeed on his own in the workplace.

Now a portfolio and grant analyst at Yale’s School of Public Health, he’s working on a master’s degree in business at the University of Connecticut.

The university plans to hire additional staff to recruit and support Promise scholars as they go through the application process, Olian said. And the university already has a team of advisors in place, especially for first-generation students, that’s helped the graduation rate rise, she added.

Xochipiltecatl said that kind of extra support makes Promise’s expansion to Connecticut’s private colleges so important.

While Xochipiltecatl said he didn’t want to put down community colleges, he compared what private colleges offer to what a high-schooler in Greenwich might get, compared to his own education. ​“They’ll be better prepared,” he said.