Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarships Program

Coppin State University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

The Coppin State College Department of Mathematics and Computer Science is requesting $138,000 over a two year period from NSF to support upwards of 25 mathematics and computer science students with scholarship grants through the NSF's Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarship (CSEMS) program. Scholarships will be awarded on a semester-by-semester basis to each student who qualifies (or re-qualifies). Initially, both juniors and seniors would be eligible. In the years following the first year of operation, rising juniors would replace the seniors who graduated the previous year. This program will enable the department to: * Recruit more and better qualified students into our majors. Currently the department cannot offer any assistance to promising students. If the department can assure them that once they have shown that they can handle the material in the introductory courses the department can guarantee that finances will not hinder them in completing their degree requirements, the department is convinced that many will take advantage of this opportunity. * Retain good students. Perilous financial situations are a major reason why many of our majors do not complete our program. Over the years, the department has seen many a promising student stop out, stop in, stop out, etc., and never finish. The department has "lost" good students to colleges and universities which are able to offer scholarships. * * Enable our students to become more competitive. Since most of our students have heavy work or athletic commitments, they don't have as much time to devote to their studies as they need to achieve excellence. The department will require that scholarship recipients commit outside-of-class work equal to twice the number of their math/computer science credit hours.