Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 48.98
Liaison Dennis Gillis
Submission Date July 30, 2012
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.1

Saint Mary's University
PAE-10: Affordability and Access Programs

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have policies and programs in place to make it accessible and affordable to low-income students?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s participation in federal TRIO programs:

The federal TRIO program is not a Canadian based program. Saint Mary's University does work with both provincial and federal student loan programs that are offered in Canada. Saint Mary's have a students loan representative set up during payment time to answer questions and they also provide forms and information needed to apply for these loans.


A brief description of the institution’s policies and programs to minimize the cost of attendance for low-income students?:

Every student has the chance to be offered an entrance scholarship when coming to Saint Mary's University. If students apply to Saint Mary’s before March 15, they will automatically be considered for a renewable entrance scholarship. Saint Mary's University guarantees a minimum total scholarship offer to any high school graduate with a scholarship average of 80% and higher. We base your scholarship average on the five Grade 12 courses required for entrance into your degree program of choice.


A brief description of the institution’s programs to equip the institution's faculty and staff to better serve students from low-income backgrounds:

One program that Saint Mary's is proud to participate in is the Pathways program. This program partners SMU with a high school where students do not always have the opportunity to continue on in school because of financial reasons or because of dropout rate. Students from Saint Mary's are partnered with a student from the Spryfield high school to be mentors and tutors. For every year that a high school student participates in the program they receive $1000 to go towards post-secondary education, this allows high school students to receive up to $4000


A brief description of the institution’s programs to prepare students from low-income backgrounds for higher education:

All students are offered orientation days, campus tours that give potential students a chance to talk to faculty and students as well as counselling services.


A brief description of the institution's scholarships for low-income students:

Saint Mary's University offers a great deal of financial aid awards, bursaries and scholarships. Every year there are awards that students can apply to receive. While most of the bursaries have a criteria that students must meet many have a requirement that the student must show the financial need.


A brief description of the institution’s programs to guide parents of low-income students through the higher education experience:

Saint Mary's provides many resources to all parents. These resources can be found on line. SMU has developed a handbook for parents as well as students. This handbook includes tips on how to help their child transition into university life, financial information as well as other tips and information on what parents need to know. This and more information can be found at teh following links...
http://www.smu.ca/futurestudents/parents.html or http://www.smu.ca/orientation/parents.html


A brief description of the institution’s targeted outreach to recruit students from low-income backgrounds:
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A brief description of the institution’s other admissions policies and programs:
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A brief description of the institution’s other financial aid polices or programs:
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A brief description of the institution’s other policies and programs not covered above:
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The website URL where information about programs in each of the areas listed above is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.