Yale faculty and staff with six continuous years of full-time service are eligible for one of the university’s most attractive benefits: the Child Scholarship Plan. Earlier this year, John Whelan, vice president for Human Resources, announced that the university increased its tuition contribution for the 2023/2024 academic year from up to $16,500 to up to $25,900 (or $12,950 per semester). This came as a welcome relief for Yale parents whose children are headed to two-or four-year colleges or currently matriculated in them.
“When I opened the email about the enhancement to the child scholarship plan, I literally gasped,” said Dana Lipnickas, IT project manager, “Our daughter is a senior in high school and my husband, James, and I just started the journey of college visits, transcripts, and essays. The increase is timely and affects our family in a wonderfully positive way. I was so grateful to receive this incredibly generous benefit.”
Patrick Dempsey, equipment mechanic in facilities at the Yale School of Medicine, had a similar reaction, immediately calling a colleague to relay his pleasure. “I was very excited,” said Dempsey. “It opened up a whole new world for my wife and I and our daughter Clara who is in her first semester at Loyola University Maryland.”
Supporting Generations
Nikitia Tillman’s son Naszir Tamar Johnson is one of the thousands of students who has received tuition support through the child scholarship program since it was first offered in 1985. Johnson attended Howard University, his mother’s alma mater, after graduating from New Haven’s Engineering and Science University Magnet School. “Naszir has always displayed academic excellence,” said Tillman, a financial assistant at Yale Law School, “and the tuition helped deepen his confidence. For me, it was yet another example of how the Yale community has supported me from day one.”
Dempsey echoed Tillman: “I think what all parents want is for their children to have better lives and better opportunities than they had, to succeed above and beyond. And this benefit makes that possible.” In the 2022/2023 academic year alone, 1,002 employees utilized the benefit, placing claims across the fall and spring semesters that totaled over $15 million.
The scholarship is open to all Yale staff and faculty who meet the employment criteria before the student’s first day of class of the first semester. Parents can find details of the benefit on It’s Your Yale.
Five Highlights of Yale’s Child Scholarship Plan for Faculty and Staff
- The maximum scholarship award for the 2023/2024 academic year is $25,900 per year, $12,950 maximum per semester.
- Children of Yale faculty and staff can attend any accredited two-year or four-year undergraduate college as a candidate for an associate or bachelor’s degree.
- Parents or students are required to submit the original application and itemized tuition bills online for the first academic year, but solely itemized tuition bills each college year that follows.
- Students are eligible for the scholarship until their 25th birthday.
- Answers to questions about the scholarship are easy to obtain by referring to the Child Scholarship Plan or calling the Employee Services Center at 203-432-5552.
