<p>From a story in the San Francisco Chronicle:</p>
<p>"Kenny Zepeda, 17, a Latino senior at Mission High School in San Francisco who moved from Guatemala just five years ago, was admitted to UC Berkeley and won a $30,000 annual scholarship from the campus. He had a 4.16 grade point average and a score of 1,000 (out of 1,600) on the SAT, he said."</p>
<p>Now, I'm sure that's about enough to enrage a number of posters on this site. Hey - my son got almost 1500 on the SAT and he isn't even going to bother to apply to Berkeley because he has no realistic chance of admission, and this kid gets in plus $30K a year with a 1000 SAT? But let's subject this story to the basic BS test: Does this sound right? The reporter is saying this kid is going to get a $30,000 annual scholarship to UC Berkeley. The total in-state cost of attendance is only $20,000. Trust me, UC does not give out a full ride plus $10K a year to anyone. His GPA is in line with Berkeley admissions averages, but his reprted SAT is significantly lower. But wait - what were his SAT IIs? UC has consistently stated that it considers GPA and SAT IIs to be far more important than SATs in their admissions decisions - but what's reported are an undoubtedly inaccurate scholarship sum and this student's SAT I score - and did the reporter even get that right? </p>
<p>In an uncertain world, we are forced to rely on whatever sources of information we have. This can lead to misunderstandings and bad feelings. The repeated AA threads in this forum are a good example. Opinions are based on "facts" which in turn are based on what somebody else told us about what a college did, or what grades and test scores a certain student of a certain race had, etc. The problem is, these "facts" are almost always out of context and frequently plain wrong. Even the anecdotal evidence presented in respected newspapers has to be taken with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Yes, he seems to be the most valuable soccer forward in the area, which happens to also be near Berkeley.Makes me wonder about how often when posters talk about allegedly low SAT/gpa URMs who get into top colleges the posters leave out the info that the students were star athletes. Meanwhile, there probably are plenty of white star atheletes who get the same treatment, but no one bothers to post about them.</p>
<p>Could the scholarship be an athletic scholarship, perhaps enhanced as a recruitment tool for poor, underrrepresented minority athletes? It would be interesting to get confirmation of the facts here.</p>
<p>The implication that the UCs need to do something to counter the low admissions rates for African Americans makes me frown. I think this is the problem of the writer rather than the quoted, but the attitude still makes me take pause. I have always been under the impression that the low numbers of minority students is a matter of outreach rather than of admission practices of the university, which is what the quote "A total of 8,438 Latino students from California were offered admission, compared with 5,570 in 1997 -- the last year before voters imposed the Proposition 209 ban on affirmative action." seems to be implying.</p>
<p>The anecdote also seems very out of place -- a "look what they're offering other minorities but not us!" whine more than a "congratulations to him, see the minorities don't /need/ help" thing as I would expect it to be used.</p>
<p>As far as the seeming wrongness of a ~30,000 scholarship to a ~22,000 school, I have no idea what that's about. Even the Regent's scholarship only awards up to full costs or a small honorarium if there is no demonstrated need (which I doubt is the case for this student, whose mother is a hotel housekeeper who doesn't speak English) that certainly doesn't throw it over $8,000. Perhaps it was not 'a' scholarship, but a compilation of campus scholarships? Berkeley does have quite a few...</p>
<p>Point well taken, though. Anecdotes are only stories told by someone else.</p>
<p>Are you sure he's counted as an in-state resident? Depending on his visa status and such, might he be considered a nonresident alien? And be charged nonresident tuition?</p>
<p>I don't know, it's just an explanation that sprang to mind.</p>
<p>There are also various reasons why a students' budget would be increased--I've been surprised to see some of the individual budgets at Michigan.</p>
<p>Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Mission High sends very few students to four-year colleges in general. least of all to Berkeley. This kid's getting good enough grades to get into Berkeley probably is a lead story, without the rest of the fooferaw.</p>
<p>My guess is that it's a $7,500 scholarship, renewable for 4 years (=$30,000) That's tuition and books (almost). I doubt that he's getting an athletic scholarship, though, as Berkeley's soccer team lists 8 other guys as the new recruits. And athletic scholarships are usually less than 100% of cost as well. Bottom line - I suspect that the story is just plain garbled.</p>
<p>Theymust be using the overall amount. That is fairly common overseas. I know an athlete who got a five year (figuring that she couldn't graduate in four with all the practices) plus airfare award from Stanford. The total was well over $200k.</p>