Online university students can compete for scholarships

Online university students can compete for scholarships

Students and working adults who choose to further their education at online colleges may participate in scholarship contests, such as the one recently held by DemandTec.

The retail solutions company has announced the winners of its fourth annual Retail Challenge, which required high school seniors to complete an online business simulation.

Over the course of 12 weeks, a total of 168 students were given retail sales data about a virtual business and challenged to make pricing and purchasing decisions to foster profitability.

Each team of two students received mentoring from a DemandTec employee throughout the competition.

A panel of judges picked six teams to win scholarships based on their understanding of the issues presented by the simulation, the accuracy of their solution and their presentation of findings.

The competition aimed to challenge students to "use their analytic abilities to interpret the retail data and their creativity to decide how to act on that data," said Suzanne Valentine, the company's vice president of science and analytics.

Students pursuing online degrees in business or management may participate in similar contests that allow them to use the skills they are learning to win scholarships.