The fear of being burdened with student debt into your later life can be discouraging to someone thinking about attending or continuing college. Salt Lake Community College has a program that aims to quell that fear for many students: SLCC Promise.
The Promise program was first introduced to the school in the 2016 Fall semester. The purpose of the program is to provide financial assistance to low-income students who attend the school full-time but do not receive enough federal financial aid to cover their tuition.
“From the start of the program, we’ve paid out over 1.6 million dollars,” says Financial Aid assistant director, Michelle Walton.
There are a few requirements students must meet to qualify for assistance from the Promise program. Among them, you must be a Utah resident, a full-time student, receive a Pell grant, and maintain a 2.0 GPA.
There’s no specific application to fill out for SLCC Promise. As long as you’ve filled out a FAFSA and completed the additional paperwork that the Financial Aid office requests, you’ll be automatically considered for the program.
“I think a lot of students don’t apply for financial aid because they assume that they’re not going to be eligible, so I would encourage students to apply even if they think they’re not eligible because you don’t know until you apply,” says Walton. “We have some students receiving nearly $1,800 a semester from Promise, so it can be a really significant source to assist people in going to college.”
For additional information on SLCC Promise, students can look online or meet with an academic advisor.
