Scholarship Risk Intervention

At the University of South Carolina, the Scholarship Risk Intervention (SRI) is a strategic collaboration between the University Advising Center and the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships designed to prevent the loss of scholarships for at-risk students. By leveraging data analytics and personalized advising, USC effectively identifies students who are on the verge of losing their LIFE, Palmetto Fellows, or General University Scholarships due to GPA or credit hour deficiencies.

Intended Outcomes:

The goal of this initiative is to leverage students' established relationship with an academic advisor to make students aware that their scholarship is at risk and identify options to meet requirements with summer enrollment. Advisors have the curricular knowledge to assist students in identifying ways to meet credit hour and/or GPA requirements to retain scholarships.

The Approach

Data-Driven Identification: Financial Aid provides a list of students at risk, which advisors use to target interventions. This early identification enables timely and effective outreach.
Individualized Outreach and Advising: Advisors reach out to at-risk students to discuss summer enrollment options and strategies to improve academic performance, ensuring they meet scholarship renewal requirements. Through personalized outreach and advising, academic advisors help students retain scholarships, stay on track with their degree progress, and continue their studies at the university.
Collaborative Support: Through coordinated efforts between advising and financial aid, the initiative ensures that students understand their academic standing and available options to retain their scholarships, when possible.

What Financial Aid can do	What advisors can do
Verify scholarship a student is receiving Review scholarship renewal eligibility after spring grades post Contact students to inform them that they are at risk of losing their scholarship	Calculate GPA and/or credit hours Advise towards summer courses that are degree-applicable and contribute to scholarship renewal requirements (if successfully completed) Assist students with transient enrollment if necessary
What Financial Aid cannot do	What advisors cannot do
Complete GPA calculations Advise towards degree-applicable courses	Provide financial aid counseling View and verify which scholarships a student is receiving

Impact of the SRI

Advisors successfully intervened with 55% of identified students in summer 2024. Additionally, 31% received no advisor contact, with some in this group having GPA and/or credit hours too low to retain scholarships through summer enrollment, and others mistakenly identified as at-risk. Some students (12%) could not be reached despite contact attempts and 2% had undocumented advisor actions, leaving their outcomes unclear.

The Scholarship Risk Initiative significantly improved scholarship retention and student success, particularly for students who engaged with academic advisors. Of the 1,676 flagged students, those who discussed their situation with an advisor were much more likely to take action, with 80% enrolling in summer coursework, 59% retaining their scholarships, and 95% returning in the fall.

Review the full 2024 SRI Report here.

See how this initiative impacted first-generation students in 2024.

Academic Advising