Maryland offers disenrolled Howard University students fast-track admission, aid – WTOP News
Gov. Wes Moore has offered a plan that would provide expedited admissions and an $800 credit to Howard University students who were notified weeks before that they were no longer enrolled.
Howard University students who were disenrolled have been invited to investigate opportunities at schools in Maryland, and officials are urging those students to apply soon.
Gov. Wes Moore has offered a plan that would provide expedited admissions and an $800 credit to attend a University System of Maryland (USM) school for Howard University students who were notified weeks before planning to move in that they were no longer enrolled.
Maryland Higher Education Secretary Elena Quiroz-Livanis said that currently there’s no deadline for applications, but told WTOP, “I would encourage students and families to reach out sooner rather than later.”
“The sooner they contact the Office of Student Financial Assistance, the sooner we can connect them to university officials to make sure that we have a place for them here in Maryland. The takeaway here is do not wait, contact us as soon as possible,” Quiroz said.
Bowie State University, like Howard, is an HBCU that is encouraging displaced Howard students to apply as well. The school is also part of the USM system.
“We have opportunities for them to choose and select any major of their choice,” Mitchel Kabia-Williams, Bowie State’s interim vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, told WTOP.
He added that his office will be working to provide a seamless experience for those students who apply and are accepted at the Maryland HBCU.
“We do have a supportive staff, supportive faculty and it is a family culture,” Kabia-Williams said.
He said there is a wait-list for housing, but a new facility would be opening in the spring.
Jaelyn Bull, a rising senior at Bowie State, also encouraged the Howard students to consider the campus that she’s come to love.
Bull explained that Bowie State wasn’t her first choice. Her dream school was Drexel University — and she got in. But Bull explained, even with the financial aid she was able to attain, the cost was still out of reach. So she looked at Bowie State University.
“I got exactly what I wanted here at Bowie,” Bull said. “You can get whatever kind of experience you want. It doesn’t only have to be the Howard experience.”
Bull said she knows that Howard is a dream school for many students. Her mother is a Howard alum.
Referring to Howard’s reputation as “the Mecca,” Bull said, “I grew up learning about the Mecca and hearing about the Mecca.”
But she said, people don’t seem to realize that “every HBCU has their own unique story and own unique history, and there’s so much of that here at Bowie, that you won’t feel like you are missing out on this Mecca experience.”
“Howard is a great school, but it’s not the end of the line,” Bull said.
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