Dr. Margen A. Java, Director, CPU Student Development Programs talked about the opportunities offered to CPU Scholars during the Scholar’s Forum.

For this school year 2018-2019, senior high school students who graduated with honors were given an opportunity to be a part of the university entrance scholarship program. These scholarships are classified into full free tuition and P3,000.00 book allowance per semester (50 slots); half- free tuition and P1,500.00 book allowance per semester (50 slots), and one-third free tuition per semester privilege (100 slots). The bases for the scholarships are their scores in the qualifying examination (70%) and their general average in Grade 12 (30%). A total of 1,009 senior high school with honor graduates took the qualifying examinations last May 9, 2018 and 163 qualified—21 for the full scholarship, 48 for the half free tuition, and 94 for the one-third tuition privilege.

The top three schools with the most number of qualifiers are as follows: Central Philippine University Senior High School with a total of 23 qualifiers with the following breakdown—full tuition: 2, half-free tuition: 5, and one-third free tuition: 16; Iloilo National High School with a total of 15 qualifiers with the following breakdown—full tuition: 2, half-free tuition: 6, and one-third free tuition: 7; and West Visayas State University with a total of 14 qualifiers with the following breakdown—half-free tuition: 6 and one-third free tuition: 8. It is interesting to note that 3 qualifiers came from Mindanao; 15 from Antique; 11 from Capiz, and 4 from Negros Occidental and 4 from Aklan. All the remaining qualifiers came from the different schools in the city and province of Iloilo and the island of Guimaras. Moreover, out of the 846 non-qualifiers, around 80% of them still studied here at the University.

Student will be able to maintain their scholarship in their second year if they have a grade point average of at least 1.63  and no grade lower than 2.25 in all subjects for the whole school year. Continuing entrance scholars may continue to avail full tuition regardless of the form of scholarship previously enjoyed—i.e. free tuition, half free tuition, or one-third free tuition privilege per year as long as the scholars have a grade point average of not lower than 1.63 and has no grade lower than 2.25 in all subjects for the semester. The first and second semesters’ grades during the second year are the bases for the continuance of scholarship in the first semester of third year. Grades are computed per semester and Summer grades are included in the Second Semester.