About 13,000 University of Wisconsin-Madison students took summer classes last year, and out of all those students, only 12 got scholarship money from the university to help cover their summer tuition. But those numbers are now changing.
This summer, the university dispersed $250,000 to more than 220 students.
“When we asked students what we could do to make summer more effective for them, they came back with affordability,” said Jeff Russell, UW-Madison’s dean of continuing studies.
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The average summer course at the UW-Madison costs about $1,200 for a Wisconsin student while an out-of-state student pays more than $3,000. The university began offering summer scholarships last year to help ease the cost burden. However, they only put aside $25,000 for need-based scholarships. The tenfold increase in the summer scholarship fund this year allows for the university to provide financial assistance for nearly 20 times the number of students.
The university also added more than 70 new classes to its summer course offerings. Russell said expanding the summer program helps UW-Madison keep up with some other public universities like University of California, Berkeley and the University of Michigan.
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