UMaine promoting Flagship Match through Connecticut billboards, NH Register reports
The University of Maine has sponsored several billboards in Connecticut to promote the school’s Flagship Match program, the New Haven Register reported. The program, now in its third year, offers merit awards for out-of-state students to attend UMaine for the same cost as in-state tuition at the student’s home state flagship university. “Financially, we feel it is a good investment,” Jeffrey Hecker, UMaine’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, told the New Haven Register. The billboards, located along interstates 95 and 91 in the New Haven area and near the University of Connecticut campus on I-84 north, read, “Go to UMaine / For the in-state cost of UConn.” Facing predictions that the number of students graduating from Maine high schools will decline in the next decade, UMaine officials are looking outside the state to maintain enrollment, and especially at UConn, which Hecker said has become more selective. The spring 2018 admissions cycle included 1,148 applicants from Connecticut; 983 students were accepted and 131 enrolled, according to UMaine. To qualify for the Flagship Match program in the 2019–20 admission cycle, students must have a 3.0 grade-point average and an SAT score of at least 1,120. The Flagship Match program also targets students from other states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois and California, according to the article. B98.5 — Central Maine’s Country also cited the New Haven Register report.