Since 2017, 100 graduates of Cleveland and East Cleveland schools have gone to Case Western Reserve University with full tuition scholarships through the university’s Cleveland Scholars program. The scholarship for Cleveland and East Cleveland residents is expanding to cover the full cost of attendance, including room and board, books, fees, and supplies, following CWRU President Eric Kaler’s goal of increasing the university’s engagement with the community.
“He looked at the Cleveland Scholars program and challenged us and said, ‘Gee, can we do better?’ So we came back and said, ‘Sure we can, President Kaler. How about if we just make it free?’” said Rick Bischoff, CWRU’s vice president for enrollment management.
Beginning in fall 2024, the university will provide full-ride scholarships to all accepted students who attended a Cleveland Metropolitan School District school, CMSD partner charter school, or East Cleveland City School District school their junior and senior year of high school. The expanded program will also offer a paid campus internship or research opportunity. Students must live in university housing their first two years at CWRU to receive the scholarship.
The Cleveland Scholars program aims to make CWRU more affordable for Cleveland and East Cleveland residents. Bischoff hopes the expanded scholarship offerings will increase enrollment of local students at CWRU, and keep talent in Cleveland long term.
Making CWRU more affordable for Clevelanders
The estimated cost of attendance for the 2023–2024 school year for students who enrolled at CWRU in fall 2023 was $87,377. The estimated tuition was $64,100, and other expenses, including university housing and a meal plan amounted to an estimated $23,277. This amount includes $1,274 in additional nursing fees and supplies.
As of July 2022, the city of Cleveland had a poverty rate of 31.4%, and East Cleveland had a poverty rate of 39%, per U.S. Census Bureau estimates. CWRU has met “100% of demonstrated need for all admitted students” since fall 2017, according to its website. About 85% of students in Cleveland high schools are eligible for the Pell Grant, a federal grant for undergraduates with high levels of financial need, Bischoff said.
“We recognized that we were giving students very large financial aid packages because we had started meeting demonstrated need for students,” Bischoff said. “But meeting demonstrated need doesn’t mean a lot to a family who’s not working in higher education. So instead we thought, you know what, families understand full tuition scholarship. So let’s call it a full tuition scholarship, and if they qualify for additional aid, we’ll stack that aid on top. Families can understand that and understand that we could be affordable for them.”
The university provides the majority of the funding for the Cleveland Scholars program, Bischoff said in an email. Other funders include College Now Greater Cleveland, the Cleveland Foundation, the John Huntington Fund for Education, and Say Yes Cleveland.
CWRU applicants do not have to complete a separate application for the Cleveland Scholars program. All accepted students who meet the high school and housing requirements will receive the scholarship.
Isabel Meltzer, a senior civil engineering major at CWRU, heard about the program through her high school, the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine at John Hay High School, which is near the university. She considered going to college out of state and applied to schools like Northeastern University, George Washington University, Northwestern University, and Emory University. But the Cleveland Scholars program drew her to CWRU, she said.
“When it came down to it, that was the deciding factor,” Isabel Meltzer said. “I think that a lot of the schools that I applied to were around the same competitiveness level, difficulty level. But Case stood out, one, because of its resources, but more importantly because of the Cleveland Scholars program and how much money it would save me and how much time and resources in general it would save me.”
The full tuition scholarship allowed her to study abroad in Seoul, South Korea, and pursue grad school. She’s currently applying for grad school out of state and is unsure of whether she plans to live and work in Northeast Ohio later on. She plans to study resilient urban planning in grad school and eventually find a career making cities more sustainable.
Isabel Meltzer’s mother, Suzanne Meltzer, said their family celebrated together the day her daughter received her acceptance to CWRU, and the full tuition scholarship that came with it. “Whether she would have ended up there without the scholarship, that’s a real question mark,” Suzanne Meltzer said.
Increasing enrollment from Cleveland schools, keeping talent in Cleveland
One of CWRU’s goals is to double the number of students from Cleveland and East Cleveland schools enrolled at the university, Bischoff said.
About 27% of CMSD’s class of 2020 enrolled in college within two years, and about 10% of CMSD’s class of 2016 students graduated from college within six years, according to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data cited in the district’s report card. For the East Cleveland City School District, about 18% of the class of 2020 enrolled in college within two years, and about 7% of the district’s class of 2016 graduated college within six years, its report card showed.
CWRU partners with the schools and College Now Greater Cleveland, which provides college advising and resources, to tell students and families about the Cleveland Scholars program, Bischoff said. The university also spreads the word about the program through its Provost Scholars Program, which pairs students from East Cleveland City School District’s Shaw High School and W.H. Kirk Middle School and CMSD’s Ginn Academy with mentors who help with college prep and applications.
“It’s not just promoting the program to seniors; it’s promoting the program to students in middle school as parents are making decisions about, ‘Where’s my child going to go to high school?” Bischoff said.
The revamped Cleveland Scholars program will also help CWRU students build skills and gain work experience while getting paid during their time at the university. CWRU will survey Cleveland Scholars about their interests and then place them into paid internships or research experiences, such as working in labs with faculty or in the university’s community relations, marketing, or business offices.
Bischoff thinks the scholarship will encourage CWRU students who are from Cleveland to stay and work in Cleveland after graduation, benefiting the city as a whole. This aligns with Northeast Ohio economic development agency Team NEO’s strategy of using the region’s higher education institutions to keep workers here.
“That means when they graduate, they’re going to be more likely to stay in Cleveland, work in Cleveland, contribute to Cleveland, and do what we do at Case Western Reserve, (which) is solve the world’s biggest problems. And it’s gonna keep more talent in Cleveland doing that,” Bischoff said.
Visit CWRU’s scholarship page for more information about the Cleveland Scholars program and other scholarships at CWRU. Contact the admissions office at admission@case.edu or 216-368-4450, and fill out this form to request updates about the university’s undergraduate programs.
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