Like most of the country, South Dakota is facing extreme
shortages of educational and medical personnel. Most states have
addressed this situation by creating individual programs for not just
each profession, but for a number of specialties within that profession.
So, for example, a state can have some kind of grant, scholarship, or
loan forgiveness plan for LPNs and RNs, another for nurse educators, and
a third for aides. It can also be the same for doctors or teachers.
The former South Dakota governor had a different idea. Rather than administering as much as a dozen different programs, why not create one overall plan? Thus was enacted the Dakota Corp Scholarship program. To coordinate the entire affair, the governor set up the Great Plains Education Foundation as well as a board that is appointed by whoever is Governor. He reached his two-year limit last January.
The overall purpose of the program is any student accepted into it does not pay tuition or related fees. The maximum amount of this tuition waiver is either the four full years of a pre-approved college or the equivalent of 16 credit hours to a school that has been approved by the board (such as in a tribal college).
The Corp openly admits it doesn't take everyone who applies. Qualified candidates must have a 2.8 grade point average and score at least a 24 on the ACT standardized test. They must also sign an agreement that after graduation they will accept employment to a state-assigned hospital, school, or similar institution.
They must also commit to one of the following occupations. If they want to become a teacher, a student should take the curriculum for becoming a music, special education, or foreign language teacher in a public, private, or parochial school for grades K-12. They could also study to become a math or science teacher at the high school level.
For health care, one must enroll in either an LPN or RN program or an allied health care occupation. The state will also accept students who intend to become farm or large animal veterinarians.
There is one critical provision to all this. If you accept this program, you will work at that pre-assigned job for the total number of years you accepted the financial assistance, plus one additional year. This means that if you went for the full four years, you will then work for South Dakota for five to fulfill your part of the obligation. There are no exceptions in this agreement, such as opting out and paying off a compound interest loan, like many other states opt out for. There are also no part-time students in this plan; s student must go full-time or not at all.
The former South Dakota governor had a different idea. Rather than administering as much as a dozen different programs, why not create one overall plan? Thus was enacted the Dakota Corp Scholarship program. To coordinate the entire affair, the governor set up the Great Plains Education Foundation as well as a board that is appointed by whoever is Governor. He reached his two-year limit last January.
The overall purpose of the program is any student accepted into it does not pay tuition or related fees. The maximum amount of this tuition waiver is either the four full years of a pre-approved college or the equivalent of 16 credit hours to a school that has been approved by the board (such as in a tribal college).
The Corp openly admits it doesn't take everyone who applies. Qualified candidates must have a 2.8 grade point average and score at least a 24 on the ACT standardized test. They must also sign an agreement that after graduation they will accept employment to a state-assigned hospital, school, or similar institution.
They must also commit to one of the following occupations. If they want to become a teacher, a student should take the curriculum for becoming a music, special education, or foreign language teacher in a public, private, or parochial school for grades K-12. They could also study to become a math or science teacher at the high school level.
For health care, one must enroll in either an LPN or RN program or an allied health care occupation. The state will also accept students who intend to become farm or large animal veterinarians.
There is one critical provision to all this. If you accept this program, you will work at that pre-assigned job for the total number of years you accepted the financial assistance, plus one additional year. This means that if you went for the full four years, you will then work for South Dakota for five to fulfill your part of the obligation. There are no exceptions in this agreement, such as opting out and paying off a compound interest loan, like many other states opt out for. There are also no part-time students in this plan; s student must go full-time or not at all.
On the plus side, while the entire agreement may take
approximately a decade of your life, what also matters is a student who
goes through the Dakota Corp program ends up not paying a single dime of
tuition or fees. When you consider the cost of education these days,
that's quite a lot of money one can save! In addition to these plans, school grants
can also help towards the cost of tuition. The less a student has to
pay out-of-pocket, the better whether he or she is obtaining an online college degree or attended a pricey Ivy League.
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