<p>My oldest, by no means a great scholar, was offered $60,000 spread out over 4 years as a “scholarship” at a Midwest private, mostly due to our mid-range EFC. The HS proudly announced and published his merit scholarship numbers.</p>
<p>Except for D1 football and basketball, athletic scholarships aren’t that great. We know a nationally ranked track/XC runner who is getting a scholarship that will pay for his books.</p>
<p>At our local HS you can only get one award, period. Even if you are the top person in multiple areas it doesn’t matter. We are truly an area that believes in making everyone feel special! ;)</p>
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<p>My son was also offered $71,000 over 4 years in merit scholarships at our state flagship. I don’t think that counts as it’s school-specific; for us, financial aid at any of the 4 elite colleges that accepted him was still a much better deal.</p>
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This cracks me up. Who in the world led you to believe that being a smart jock is the key to getting things in life?</p>
<p>I’m rather appalled by the sense of entitlement pervasive in the original post.
Organizations that award scholarships have a right to determine the criteria for selection. If the organization values leadership with a humanitarian focus, that’s the organization’s prerogative. A student’s choice of extracurricular activities says something about what he/she cares about…and perhaps provides a “window” into the kind of career and avocational pursuits he/she will have as an adult. I’m not surprised at all that scholarship-granting organizations would want to reward off-the-field/court leadership…rather than athletic prowess alone (which, in a certain sense, can be considered a selfish pursuit).</p>
<p>To be honest, there are many top student-athletes out there who find a way to dedicate themselves to pursuing athletic excellence while, at the same time, showing regard for others by performing significant amounts of community service. One-dimensional “smart jocks” pale in comparison.</p>
<p>From the original post:
A comment like this misses the point of supporting/encouraging students who perform community service and completely discounts the lessons in life learned by participating in athletics and excelling academically.</p>
<p>I have shared with my kids from day one, that applying for scholarships does not guarantee receiving one. If they get it, then thats a bonus, if not then its a bonus for someone else. They now now they cannot feel entitled to other people’s money, not even Mom and Dad’s.</p>
<p>OP, your kiddo should be proud of what was received and hopefully he is happy that others too got a piece of the pie.</p>
<p>I get where the poster is coming from since I remember feeling somewhat the same way after attending our first award ceremony. My oldest was in the top 10 of a large class, but while he was recognized and given a useless plaque - all the money awards went to kids who were involved in service or business organizations. There were some small money awards for art achievement as well. Most of the scholarship notices my kid’s got had specific criteria my kids didn’t fit. (First generation, overcoming hardships etc.) My younger son, who was “only” in the top 6% of the class didn’t get invited to the ceremony at all, though it turned out he was supposed to have been awarded a certificate for participating in Science Olympiad. There was one kid at the ceremony my oldest attended that got many more awards than the others. He was not well liked by other students because he was considered a real suck up. I don’t know if there are scholarships for sports because at our school they do sports awards as a separate ceremony.</p>
<p>He is leaving your “town” for greener pastures. Local people don’t like this. Let it go. But yes ~ you are correct, it shouldn’t happen, but it is very common.</p>
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<p>Perhaps this is unique to our community. Apparently there have been years in the past when one or two kids literally got everything, more money than they could actually even use. Some of the organizations (or should I say, the individuals on the committees) are wary of that happening again. In fact, some of the scholarships have recently been changed so that valedictorians or top 10%-ers are not eligible, in an effort to spread the wealth around. It’s assumed that the top kids will be eligible for other awards.</p>
<p>So, OP, did you need the scholarship $ to help pay for UPenn? I know you were concerned w/paying for UPenn in earlier threads. Did they give S a good finaid award?</p>
<p>Since the OP hasn’t been back and has all of 7 posts, have any of you considered the possibility that the OP might just be a ■■■■■. I mean come on, the “my kid is perfect in every way and no one appreciates him/her”?!?</p>
<p>I have definitely seen local organizations and especially school based (PTA, teacher’s groups, etc) give awards to kids they perceive to have financial need, even if the award is not need based by rules. And even if the kid who got the award is getting full need based aid and the other kid is not and may technically have ‘unmet’ need. People are people, they have subconscious priorities.</p>
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<p>So you’ve never seen a real parent on CC or anywhere else lament that “my kid is perfect in every way and no one appreciates him/her”?</p>
<p>You would think that their child’s admission to an Ivy would be reward enough. I find it bizarre that they’d crab about a few thousand extra dollars and would be jealous of other kids’ achievements. Either way a big dose of reality is needed or they’re a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>I thought the OP might be a ■■■■■ at first but then I read his other posts. I think he truly is a poster who feels his special kid is entitled to everything! Not the first we’ve seen!</p>
<p>We’ll just assume Dad of snowflake isn’t a ■■■■■. He’s I’d for a big bite of reality come August when he realizes UPenn doesn’t bow at the alter of athletics, and at Wharton his son is a very tiny fish in a huge ocean full of sharks.</p>
<p>I believe a lot depends on the kid. Is he a decent young man, or is he self obsessed? It takes an incredible work ethic to be number one in a class of 400 students. Athletic accomplishments typically do not come without significant effort either. None of us know whether this young man is a great kid or not well liked or respected.
It would seem that totally on the basis of his academics he would have received many more awards.
If he is a humble and decent kid than this situation is unfortunate. If he is self obsessed, perhaps it will have been a wake up call.</p>
<p>It’s not the lack of awards, it’s the reaction. The lack of graciousness and understanding that the hard work did in fact pay off. His son hit the jackpot. He enjoyed a successful high school athletic and academic career. If they were after scholarship money there are schools they could have sought out where they would have found that. With UPenn as first choice that wasn’t their goal. That’s okay, everyone has their goals and makes their choices. This family achieved everything they went after…everything except these awards evidentially. </p>
<p>As pointed out awards are often given by specific civic and community groups. There can be an economic need component, which the OP didn’t have. These awards may be for civic and community service, etc. Rarely, if ever, is anything handed out by the community specifically for athletics or being Val alone. Those may have been the $700 the OP mentioned, who knows? There usually has to be something more, another component. </p>
<p>I’ll use another example. My student isn’t involved in athletics or ROTC. He’s involved in the IT specialty program at our school. He wouldn’t expect to show up and be considered for athletic or ROTC (or business related, community service, etc) awards that he wasn’t involved in. Even within IT my older son received few awards as he was at the top of his class, had several national awards, got into his school of choice, and didn’t need the validation. I’m not saying that to be glib, what I’m saying is he was really happy with his life and accomplishments by graduation. He (and we) were glad to see some kids get recognized that usually don’t, and some that we knew really needed the money. Why not just be thankful for your good fortune and celebrate seeing your peers get awards?</p>
<p>I think for high-level athletes, not just good high school varsity players, there is often a lack of understanding of the hours they put into their sport and the value of it in terms of discipline, character, dedication, etc. My kid put in 25 hrs/wk year round, throughout high school, maintained near perfect grades in mostly AP classes while also working 10 hours/wk and commuting another 10 hrs/wk to practices. There wasn’t much time left for service, but she did as much as she could. She put in more total productive extra-curricular hours by far, than her friends who were president of student govt, founded clubs, won awards on debate team, and did “100 hours of community service!” I would have to say after seeing the college acceptances, a student dedicating herself to becoming truly elite at a sport should know that if she isnt going for the athletic scholarship, the Ivy hook, or simply love of the sport, there will be few other rewards but many sacrifices. And colleges/scolarship committees will value the the contributions of the kids who put hours into service, math team, debate, etc., over your athletic accomplishments, however great. Go in with your eyes open, and plan accordingly.</p>
<p>Should add before I get flamed that my kid is not bitter, and neither am I. She made the choice that felt right for her, loves the college she will attend in the fall, received decent financial aid, and did actually manage to cover her minimal loans with outside scholarships, one of which was athletic-related.</p>