‘MONEY’ Recognizes Duquesne’s Financial Assistance to Students

MONEY, which already has recognized Duquesne University as one of the nation’s schools with the best tuition value, is now calling Duquesne one of the 99 colleges in the country generally providing financial aid to every freshman.

In its listing, MONEY identified public and private schools that have graduation rates at or above the median and “generally made it a practice to give every single freshman a scholarship.”

“Colleges have a choice as to how they will invest institutional-based academic scholarships,” said Paul-James Cukanna, associate provost for enrollment management. “Many limit the funds to a select few. President (Charles) Dougherty’s philosophy has been to leverage our funds to provide access and choice to as many academically talented and motivated students as possible.

“It’s a perfect alignment to our mission of service to students,” Cukanna said.

In compiling the list, MONEY cited a recent survey that shows the average private college awards scholarships to 89 percent of its freshmen. Duquesne offers financial aid to 99 percent of its incoming students.

In July, MONEY named Duquesne among the nation’s 736 schools that provide the best value for tuition dollars.

Schools were ranked on 21 factors in the categories of:

• Quality of education, including peer and instructor quality as well as graduation rates
• Affordability, including the net price of a degree, student and parental debt, student loan default risks and affordability for low- and moderate-income students
• Outcomes, including graduates’ earnings as reported by alumni to PayScale.com; available career services and the market value of alumni skills.

The criteria also included what MONEY called “special value measures” that considered how well students did compared with expectations based on their economic and academic backgrounds, as well as the institution’s mix of majors.