Alaska College Scholarship Sees Low Acceptance Rate | Inside Higher Ed

Most of the best students in Alaska high schools leave the state for college. And a state scholarship designed to change that is not working, The Anchorage Daily News reported.

The Alaska Performance Scholarship was first established in 2011 to keep the best students in the state for college. There are three tiers to the scholarship, the highest of which is $4,755 per year.

The Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education recently released a report that found a record-low 22 percent of eligible students chose to use the scholarship in 2022, dropping from a high of 39 percent in 2016.

“We’re consciously working on bringing that number up to 50 [percent],” said Pat Pitney, president of the University of Alaska.