Attracting The Best Students
December 30th, 2006
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Smaller American Universities are adopting novel ways to attract the best students-offering Chess scholarships. This comes from the belief that good chess players will do better academically. While the system of entrance examinations which we follow in India can be termed more ‘fair’, it leaves very little scope for lesser known schools to attract the best talent.
Founded in 1985, Maryland’s program is one of the oldest in the nation. Dr. Alan Sherman, the program’s director since 1991, said university officials supported the scholarships not only to attract good students but also to raise the profile of the institution. Dr. Sherman estimated that the program cost about $250,000 a year.For that investment, the university has one of the most successful chess teams in the country. It has won the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championships, the elite event in college chess, many times, including in 2005. The other big winner nationwide is the University of Texas at Dallas.
Dr. Sherman said having a successful chess team benefited the university. “I see the competitive team as a means towards a more important end, which is bringing smart people to campus who will do things in math and science and other fields,” he said.(emphasis mine) [link]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!