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Students who need financial aid for college face a complex and unpredictable system. Many must piece together funding from multiple sources and often face gaps that leave them unsure whether they can enroll or persist through graduation. For too many, especially first-generation and low-income students, this system turns a pathway to opportunity into a financial and administrative obstacle course.
The George M. Pullman Educational Foundation was founded to address this challenge. Since 1950, it has provided students in the Chicago metropolitan area with four-year scholarships that can be used in any major at any accredited college. That flexibility matters. It allows recipients to transfer schools, change course or adjust plans as circumstances evolve, without risking a loss of funding.
Equally important is the support that comes with that money. Pullman staff members and a network of foundation alumni regularly check in on students to help them navigate academic and personal challenges. Mental health resources are available as well — a feature that was added to the scholarship program in 2025, as student feedback and research made clear that stress is one of the top reasons, along with financial pressures, that undergraduates struggle to finish college.
Over the past five years, 84% of the foundation’s scholarship recipients have earned a college degree in four years, nearly twice the national completion rate, and 95% finished within six years. Almost 60% were first-generation college students, 100% were Pell Grant-eligible and 70% graduated debt-free. These outcomes are not the product of extraordinary students alone. They reflect four assumptions about what they need to succeed.
1. Funding must be predictable. One-time scholarships can help with access, but they do little to ensure completion. Students need to know from the outset that support will last.
2. Flexibility matters. Restricting aid to a specific school, major or path may simplify administration, but it limits students’ ability to respond to real-world challenges. Academic journeys are rarely linear.
3. Support services should be treated as essential, not as optional enhancements. Advising, mentorship and mental health resources are not add-ons. They are central to whether students persist and graduate.
4. Access to information must improve. Many students still learn about scholarships and financial aid through informal networks — guidance counselors, community organizations or word of mouth. Increasing awareness and establishing more official sources of information is as important as expanding funding.
This scholarship model stands in stark contrast to a system in which students must piece together funding from federal loans, state grants, aid from colleges and private scholarships. And after all that work, many still come up short, leaving families to bridge the gap. For students with fewer resources, that gap often determines whether earning a degree is even an option.
The inequities are well-documented. A recent Axios analysis found that 56% of students from the highest-income families receive college grants exceeding their calculated need, compared with just 0.2% of those from the lowest-income families. This helps explain the growing gap between cost and perceived value, as nearly 40% of those planning to attend college never enroll, with first-generation and low-income students having the highest opt-out rates.
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In addition, research shows that advising, mentoring and other wraparound services can significantly increase completion rates, in some cases by as much as 55% to 60% for at-risk students. Yet these services are often treated as add-ons that are nice to have. Nearly 30% of colleges expect cuts to student support budgets in the coming years, even as needs grow.
The consequences of the current scholarship system are stark. Fewer than half of undergraduates complete a four-year degree within four years, and outcomes are worse for low-income and first-generation students. Many who start college never graduate. Others struggle to finish, accumulating additional costs and uncertainty the longer it takes.
Yet the need for increasing numbers of promising college graduates remains strong. The pipeline of college-educated workers will face massive shortages by 2032. At the same time, many underserved students are being forced to delay enrollment, opt for community college or forsake earning a four-year degree altogether.
None of the benefits embedded in the Pullman scholarship are out of reach for funders, universities and policymakers. They already have the tools to implement them. What is required is a shift in perspective — from viewing scholarships as transactions to treating them as long-term investments in student success.
Failing to support talented students with needs through graduation denies those without a bachelor’s degree an earnings bump of roughly 65% to 70% over those with only a high school diploma. It also poses a risk to the nation’s economy, because while the workforce is evolving and the demand for diverse college-educated talent continues to grow, the pipeline of college-educated workers is expected to face massive shortages by 2032. The challenge is aligning the system with the realities students face today.
A reset is possible. By aligning funding with flexibility, pairing financial support with consistent guidance and recognizing that completion — not just access — is the true measure of success, higher education administrators and funders can build a system that delivers on its promise.
Eric Delli Bovi is executive director of the George M. Pullman Educational Foundation. Learn more at https://www.pullmanfoundation.org/
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