The Kansas University Endowment Association will give $1.9 million of the total $2.5 million for enhancing entrance scholarships, said Dale Seuferling, association president.

That leaves KU to reallocate $600,000 from existing undergraduate scholarship funds across its departments and schools.

For the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, that money will come from its central fund and alumni-funded scholarships, said Joseph Steinmetz, dean of the college.

“What we were able to do is identify funds that could have normally next year gone to juniors and seniors,” he said, “and those monies are now going to be put together in packages for incoming freshmen.”

He estimated about a third of the $167,000, or $56,000, will come from scholarships that could have in previous years gone to juniors and seniors.

Steinmetz said he thought juniors and seniors would not be substantially affected.

“We have lots of scholarships that are specifically set up that are given to juniors and seniors and even sophomores that excel in a given discipline,” he said. “None of that could be reallocated.”

This academic year, KU students received about $26 million in privately funded scholarships – a 10.6 percent increase from the 2006-07 school year.

Spokeswoman Lynn Bretz said KU is looking for ways to increase scholarships and financial aid. She cited this year’s tuition compact to incoming freshmen, which prevents tuition increases for four years.

Bretz said KU enrolls more Kansans – 20,296 this fall – than any other college or university in the state. That’s out of 29,260 students, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning.

Its freshman class of 5,474 has the highest average ACT scores in Kansas at 24.6, she said. Kansas State University’s composite ACT score for its freshman 2007 class was 23.8, according to K-State’s Office of Planning and Analysis.

When including federal and tuition grants and loans, the total financial aid received by KU students in 2006 was about $197 million. Bretz estimated it was more than $200 million for 2007.