"Barton Community College students received more than $10 million in financial aid last year, an increase of more than $2.1 million, according to Myrna Perkins, Barton’s chief accreditation officer and director of financial aid. That includes loans, scholarships and federal financial aid," Great Bend Tribune reports. 

"The increase primarily consisted of a rise in the federal financial aid paid, by $1.4 million, Perkins reported. Institutional aid rose by $583,881.

Ninety-one percent of Barton’s first-time full-time students receive some form of financial aid.

The average package paid to Barton students was $7,554 for the year.

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Accomplishments and goals

Perkins reported the following accomplishments for Barton’s Financial Aid Office in 2018-19:

• The office implemented a change to processing Athletic Scholarships due to a change in Jayhawk Conference rules allowing full-ride scholarships.

• The office formed a Student Focus Group which met frequently during the year. The charge of this group was to find better ways to handle scholarships and to ensure effective leveraging of institutional scholarship funds.

• Staff members began work on their National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) credentials. There is no such thing as a 'Financial Aid' degree, but these are tests on 17 topics which, when successfully completed, result in an individual credential for the staff member. Six staff members sought credentials and 19 credentials total were earned."

Publication Date: 10/28/2019