Couple Gives College $121 Million on Condition Students graduate in 4 years.
Bob and Ellen Thompson, a couple in their 90s, are donating $121 million to expand a scholarship program at Bowling Green State University. But there are strings attached to make sure recipients earn a degree in 4 years. According to the terms, 80% of the students receiving support must graduate within four years. Otherwise, the public school in Ohio has to foot the bill for each extra semester. The Thompson scholars program is taking on one of the most intractable problems in US higher education: college completion. On average, only about half of students earn a degree within six years, a recent study showed. The longer they take, the costlier college becomes. And if students drop out after taking loans, they end up with debt and no degree. 

From Bloomberg

One of the nice things about this scholarship is its not geo-restricted. You could be from Senca County or Lorain County and pick this one up. However I think you have to be pell grant qualifier and the cost isn't full tuition only up to 11,000 dollars.

Contrast that with OU providing free tuition to Athens County and surrounding counties. If 15% of the students are from that region that means 675 are going tuition free and without any community service requirement. The catch is they need to have at least a 3.0 HS GPA which is not difficult to do. Then of course living that close to campus students aren't required to live in the dorms either.

The plans I think are more in relation to countering OSU's free tuition for Pell Grant students and 9,400 students are enrolled in that one.

https://news.osu.edu/buckeye-opportunity-program-helps-ke... /

Bling-bling, ching-ching. Congratulations to Bowling Green. It's nice to hear when those who are wealthy decide to share some of it with others. If only more in power would do the same.