SATURDAY: Top Students Compete For UC Scholarships

High school seniors from 38 states – including those as far away from Cincinnati as Alaska and Hawaii – are finalizing their traveling plans to Cincinnati to compete in UC’s 9th annual Cincinnatus Scholarship Competition. Cincinnatus, in fact, is a world competition this year, with one student expected from Trinidad.

Everyone will go home a winner and 10 of the top participants will be offered $64,000 full awards from the University of Cincinnati to pay for tuition, room and board, fees and books. Other levels of awards amount to $24,000 ($6,000 per year), $14,000 ($3,500 per year) and $8,000 ($2,000 per year).

Lucinda Cohen, interim director of the Cincinnatus Scholarship Competition, says 1,450 students are expected to compete in Cincinnatus on Feb. 12. Along with their parents, that will amount to 3,150 visitors on campus that Saturday. Three additional make-up dates for competition – Feb. 4, Feb. 22 and Feb. 25 – are expected to bring an additional 600 competitors to campus, along with 600 of their parents.

The nation’s top high school seniors were invited to the Cincinnatus Scholarship Competition after applying to UC last fall. To receive that invitation, the students had to carry at least a 3.0 grade-point average and have one of the following requirements:

• High school rank in the top five-percent of class
• ACT composite of 26
• SAT combined score of 1170

On the day of competition, students compete in essay and problem-solving exercises in approximately 90 rooms across campus. Competition judges will also consider the students’ creative abilities and leadership skills as they select who will be invited back to UC in the early spring to interview for the full scholarship awards.

The scholarship committee will also factor the students’ history of community service. Each of UC’s Cincinnatus awardees is required to perform 30 hours of community service each year as part of their scholarship commitment. Cohen says last year, UC’s Cincinnatus Scholars offered approximately 65,085 hours of service to the Cincinnati community. The contest is named after the Roman farmer who led his city to victory when Rome was invaded in 458 BC, but then returned to his farm.

Cincinnatus Agenda, Feb. 12

8-9 a.m. – Registration for previously invited participants at UC’s Fifth Third Arena
9 a.m. – Welcome by UC President Nancy L. Zimpher, Mitchel D. Livingston, UC vice president for Student Affairs and Services, and Caroline Miller, associate vice president for Enrollment Management.

9:45 a.m. – Essay and problem-solving exercises

Noon – Lunch in Fifth Third Arena with keynote speaker Mitchel D. Livingston, UC Vice President for Student Affairs and Services

1:45 p.m. – Presentations about UC’s Honors Scholars program

2:45 p.m. – College receptions

4 p.m. – Open House in the main lobby of the Darwin T. Turner Residence Hall. Representatives of Resident Education and Development will hold tours of UC’s Jefferson Residence Hall Complex (encompassing Turner and Schneider Halls), which opened in 2002. UC provides housing for Honors Scholars in those locations.