Flagship Match being offered in more states, media report
The Mercury News of San Jose, California, NBC Los Angeles, Orange County Sun, NPR Illinois and Providence Journal reported on the recent expansion of the University of Maine’s Flagship Match financial aid program. UMaine’s Flagship Match is a competitive scholarship program that guarantees academically qualified, first-year students from several states will pay the same tuition and fee rate as their home state’s flagship institution. The program, which was initially offered to students in six neighboring states with higher in-state tuition rates, is now also being offered in Rhode Island, California and Illinois. “If we’re to maintain our enrollment, we’re going to need to be recruiting people from other states,” Jeffrey Hecker, UMaine’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost told Mercury News. Kaitlyn Corral, a freshman from Los Angeles County, is studying chemical engineering at UMaine on an athletic scholarship. The 18-year-old soccer player — who saw snow flurries for the first time on Tuesday — told Mercury News she was the only one from her large high school to apply. “The school is beautiful, the campus is gorgeous, and the professors are outstanding,” said Corral, who expects the tuition deal will encourage more Californians to apply. “If you’re thinking about going to a relatively small New England college or university, we have a beautiful campus here right on the Stillwater River,” Hecker told NPR Illinois. “Lots of outdoor activities, about an hour from the coast, about two hours from skiing in the mountains. People come from all over to see the fall foliage, and experience the Maine way of life. So it’s a really wonderful place to live.” East Bay Times also published an article breaking down differences such as tuition costs and average rent between UMaine and University of California, Berkeley.