Help provide more scholarships to support Turing Scholars Program students

Our Turing Scholars are enormously talented and motivated. Our mission is to help them meet their exceptional potential by challenging them, inspiring them, and showing them new paths so that they can accomplish much more than they ever thought possible. To accomplish this goal, we need to increase our scholarship funds.

One of our alumni generously created the Turing Honors Scholarship fund, which allows us to provide scholarships directly to Turing students. Why is this so important? There are two reasons:

Your Impact 

First, scholarships are clearly the most powerful tool we have to recruit the best and brightest students. Our applicants already receive scholarship offers from competing institutions, and many of the students who decline our offer of admission cite our lack of scholarships as a primary reason for doing so. As a program that is defined by the talent of its students, we must compete more effectively to bring top talent to The University of Texas at Austin. 

Second, we face a new reality. For years, we have been one of only three public schools ranked among the nation's top computer science programs. We thus had an inherent recruiting advantage; our students were able to get an incredible education at a fraction of the cost of attending schools like MIT or Stanford. For our best students, this advantage is now slipping away. 

You may be aware that state funding at UT-Austin has been cut, but you’re probably not aware of the extent. The state-funded portion of UT's budget is now down to 12%. Yes, a mere 12%.As a result, tuition at UT has risen to compensate for the lack of state support. At the same time, private universities have worked with their alumni to dramatically increase scholarship funding. It is now cheaper for many scholarship students to attend Harvard or Stanford than it is to attend UT-Austin. 

We can reverse this trend, but only by turning to our alumni and friends for support in the same way that the private universities have been doing for decades. This is why this Turing Honors Scholarship Fund is so important. In partnership with the alumnus who created this fund, we are now challenging other alumni to help the cause. 

What is the Turing Scholars Program?

The Turing Scholars Program is an honors program for outstanding Computer Science undergraduates. Housed in the nation's top-ranked  Computer Science department, the program's mission is to provide a computer science education that is second to none. The program combines the advantages of a small college—small class sizes, close interaction with faculty, and honors housing—with the advantages of a large research university, including a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, and ample opportunities for interdisciplinary studies. Only the top 4.5 percent of the computer science class is admitted into The Turing Scholars Program. Graduates of the program are recruited by and work for some of the top technology firms in the world, including Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.

FAQs

What is an endowment? Endowments are a sound investment in a better future. With an endowed gift, you provide permanent support for the University. Your gift is invested — never spent — and each year a distribution, like dividends on a mutual fund account, is made to your chosen program or area. Investment earnings above the dividend rate help the endowment value grow over time, to keep pace with inflation, and maintain your endowment’s spending power.

Can I utilize my company's match?  YES! Many employers sponsor matching gift programs (Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) and will match any charitable contributions made by employees. To find out if your company has a matching gift program, please click here. Tip: You will need to request the matching gift from your employer.

What is a gift matching program? Matching gifts are donations a company, employer, or individual makes to match charitable contributions made to a specific cause.