by Claudia Brunson
news editor
Recently Millsaps College has made arrangements for faculty and their children to enjoy a tuition deduction for students that attend either Madison Ridgeland Academy or Jackson Prepatory School and plan to attend Millsaps College upon graduation. This new arrangement is set to start in the Fall 2015 semester.
“We have basically signed formal partnership agreements with, so far, Jackson Prep and Madison Ridgeland Academy that offer mutual benefits,” Vice President for Enrollment and Communications Robert Alexander said. “So, Millsaps employees, staff and faculty can send their children to MRA or Prep at a reduced tuition. And as an exchange, we guarantee that if sons and daughters of Prep or MRA faculty staff, or students that are graduating, want to come to Millsaps we are guaranteeing a minimum scholarship amount.”
With this new arrangement, Millsaps is hoping to break the stereotype that the college is inaccessible due to cost. Millsaps recognizes the fact that it is the most expensive institution in the poorest state of the country and works diligently to help offer financial relief to future and current students.
Although this program is a step in the right direction to get students to come to Millsaps on a discounted rate, some students do not agree that this program should only benefit these two schools or other private schools in the area. Freshman Jamesia Kenney is a graduate of Lamar Academy, which is a private school located in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. Kenney thinks that Millsaps should make better efforts to provide tuition decrease to not only other private schools in Mississippi, but public high schools as well.
“Well, that [offering tuition decrease to only MRA and Prep] would not be fair, first of all because … there are other private schools in Mississippi that are as good or better than MRA and Prep—so why can’t they get price decreased for those schools?” Kenney asked.
Alexander said Millsaps is also making efforts to form partnerships with Jackson Public Schools as well, although in a different way than the tuition deduction arrangement. “We are also strengthening our partnership with other local area public schools,” Alexander said. “In the last few months there has been a grant from the Kennan Foundation and that is specifically to support students from Jackson Public Schools. We are preferring JPS students who are interested in the sciences and perhaps involved in the Base-Pair program, which is a partnership for high school students who go to JPS with the help of UMMC.”
The Kennan Foundation and the Base-Pair program are just two examples of Millsaps reaching out the JPS students to help them enhance their education and potentially choose Millsaps as their college of choice. The school does offer numerous scholarships for incoming students based on academics, family income, extracurricular activities, ACT scores and other factors.
More information about this new program and the other scholarship programs Millsaps offers can be found on the school’s website.
