Scholarship Pool

Many a company that would like to set up a scholarship fund either doesn't know how or doesn't think that its gift would be large enough to warrant the search needed to find deserving students. Last week Manhattan's Council for Financial Aid to Education-announced a made-to-order solution: a plan for corporations to contribute to a national scholarship commission, which would operate the biggest college-scholarship program ever set up. Said the council's president, Businessman-Educator Wilson Compton: "Since the council announced the opening of its New York offices last month, it has been swamped with inquiries about the need for helping educational programs." Fully two-thirds of the inquiries have come from corporations, which can make scholarship contributions under EPT this year for as little as 18 1/2 on the dollar.

The plan calls for the program to start when enough money has come in for a minimum of 200 scholarships, although the number awarded may eventually run into the tens of thousands. The plan also calls for eventual screening of every high-school student in the U.S. through a series of tests, furnished by the commission and conducted by the schools, and personal interviews conducted by state committees. It has also been proposed that names of "high-ranking students be turned over to colleges and companies that have their own scholarship programs. All administrative and other expenses of the commission will come from foundations, not from corporate gifts.

The council hopes that the plan will go into effect before April 1, and that the first scholarships will be awarded next fall.

* Among the backers: the Ford, Carnegie and Sloan Foundations.

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