The Goal
To grow a fund which reinstates the Full Merit Scholarship for all Olin students.
Why
By reducing the cost of Olin, we make Olin’s world class education available to the widest variety of students possible. Graduating debt free enables alumni to pursue their passions and concentrate on career and life advancement without the worries of debt.
How
We've signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Olin, which spells out the details. Here are the basics:
- With the fund endowed, the college will distribute a scholarship from the endowment’s earnings (in accordance with the college's policies) such that each student in their eighth semester would receive an equal scholarship. These distributions will start small, with a minimum of $75 distributed per student.
- In future years, once the distribution exceeds the cost of the eighth semester's tuition, the Fund would then start distributing money to the preceding semesters (seventh semester, followed by sixth, etc.) until the entire four year tuition of each student is covered.
- If any distribution would fall below $75 in a year, no distribution would be made.
Distributions
The amounts that have been awarded to students each year.
- FY 2016 - $75 was awarded to 64 students. $4,800 funded by the college in support of the endeavor.
- FY 2017 - $75 was awarded to 68 students. $5,100 funded by the college; the endowment was negative.
- FY 2018 - $75 was awarded to 77 students. $5,775 funded by the endowed fund.
Progress
We'll periodically update our progress below.
- March 26, 2015 (initial announcement) - $846.82
- May 5, 2015 - $9,900
- May 20, 2015 - $11,036
- May 29, 2015 - $19,124
- May 30, 2015 - $21,500
- June 3, 2015 - $37,351
- June 12, 2015 - $44,431
- June 24, 2015 - $65,706
- June 30, 2015 - $81,811
- July 30, 2015 - $91,540
- Sept 28, 2015 - $103,533
- November 25, 2015 - $108,600
- December 3, 2015 - $115,284
- December 30, 2015 (endowment goal) - $125,000
- February 16, 2016 - $128,227
- May 25, 2016 - $141,834
- June 30, 2016 - $195,137
- July 31, 2016 - $198,884
- Dec 22, 2016 - $211,628
- Mar 31, 2017 - $238,000
- Jun 30, 2017 - Principal: $263,420, Accumulated Earnings: $25,327, Market Value: $288,747
- Feb 9, 2018 - Principal: $369,218
- Jun 5, 2019 - Market Value: $572,510
- Jun 30, 2019 - Principal: $513,269, Market Value: $580,563
- Dec 31, 2019 - Principal: ?, Market Value: $678,000
- Nov 30, 2021 - Principal: $751,758.09, Market Value: $1,070,826.34
Financial Model
What Olin endeavor would be complete without a model? The highlighted rows are actuals at the end of the fiscal year. Change our assumptions, if you like.
| Year | Endowment | Distribution | # Scholarships |
|---|
Questions
How is this different than the current Financial Aid, Student Scholarships, or Parent Scholarships designations?
The Olin Alumni Merit Scholarship Fund is fundamentally different than those three designations because it is incremental to Olin’s operating budget. This means that this fund provides an additional merit scholarship of $75 (to start) and helps reduce cost for those only receiving merit scholarships. For those receiving need based aid it reduces the need-based aid they receive and increases the merit scholarship total value.