A great idea

UAA offers the top ten percent of every AK high school a scholarship of about $11,000. It's the only scholarship of its kind fully funded by a university through land endowments, and allows kids the option of actually finishing college debt-free. By offering the program, the school has increased diversity (so that they offer to the brightest kids of every culture in the state), and also raised the number of Alaskans that go to college in state rather than out of state (which is still extremely typical).

Illinois had a similar idea, except they only gave about $1000 to the top ten percent of every school. Even with the scholarship, IL schools were significantly more expensive than out-of-state schools of the same caliber.