Prospective students accepted into the Schreyer Honors College for the next academic year will reap increased monetary benefits -- $1,000 more than those who are currently enrolled in the college.

The Honors College is increasing its scholarship money from $2,500 to $3,500 for incoming freshmen next fall, and upperclassmen currently enrolled in the college will continue to receive $2,500 each year.

Clay Calvert, interim Schreyer Honors College dean, said that the reason for the increase is to attract top-quality students to the college.

However, increasing the amount of scholarship by $1,000 will not really improve the quality of students who apply and are admitted to the college that much.

For students accepted to more selective universities, $1,000 will probably not be enough to lure them to Penn State. But the Honors College probably does not have the financial resources to offer a lot more than that to each student.

If the Honors College seriously wants to attract more top-quality prospective students, perhaps it should consider increasing its standards for admission and standards for GPA and honors credit requirement for students currently enrolled at the university.

Improving these standards will certainly improve the quality of students within the college, but more scholarship money probably will not.

The money the university has given to the college to increase the scholarship awards could be used to improve other aspects of the educational experience for Honors College students.

Or perhaps the university as a whole could allocate this money to its general university scholarship endowment fund so that it benefits all students and not just a select few in the Honors College.