Bonner Scholar E-Mail and More

<p>i got both the bonner email and the one listing about 7 different scholarships, and i applied rd. never had an interview to be able to express significant volunteering interest, only possibility is that they saw a bunch on my resume.</p>

<p>and to whoever diminished the scholarship by alluding to the minimal personal financial benefit, 2500 a year i think, you are COMPLETELY missing the point of the entire program. I am personally convinced that this is the best scholarship available at the school because they will PAY for you to travel the world and volunteer in impoverished and deprived areas, AND they are generous to provide $2500, what you might have made working for that sumemer.<br>
this scholarship is about helping others, not helping yourself, and if you believe that ten hours a week is a large time commitment, think about the fact that they are paying you 1250 a semester because you are helping and personally, i would much rather be helping children or building a park, or aiding the homeless for ten hours a week than have a crummy campus job handing out lunch trays or cleaning bathrooms for a comparable amount of time and the same monetary gain</p>

<p>this scholarship would facilitate my dream of traveling to south africa or india to work with children and help with the failing school systems there. this scholarship is a dream come true for all those lucky enough to be selected, and i think all who apply should appreciate that.
M.C. for N.J.</p>

<p>Nice post, icsmatt. I like your attitude :)</p>

<p>ICSMatt, lay off on people who are disappointed with the amount of the scholarship. The purpose of the scholarship is partially to help those with strong financial need so it's understandable that someone may not be ecstatic about a scholarship that provides less than ten percent of the cost of attendance. Yes it is important to help people but $4,000 per year consuming 10 hours per week may be significantly less than one can make working in Richmond City. A different source of money can be the difference between being able to attend and settling for a different school. You don't need to be a martyr.</p>

<p>Page, I joined the UR chat concering Bonner Scholars and a member on the staff said the email about applying to Bonner Scholars was sent to everyone who applied to the University of Richmond</p>

<p>All students who applied for admission as first-year students were invited to the Bonner Scholar chat. An invitation shouldn't be seen as any sort of sign about your admission decision. Sorry to disappoint! </p>

<p>UR Admissions</p>

<p>I'm sorry that you perceive our decision to publicize the scholarship opportunity as mis-representative about your chances for admission. It certainly was not intended to do that. It takes many weeks to read and evaluate all the materials submitted by applicants and there is no way that we'd be in a position to have made our decisions by early February. If we were able to do that, we'd have notified students about admission already. Our admission decisions are made very carefully, one at a time, and we don't just run a computer program to eliminate people based on certain statistical factors. I would hope most applicants consider that to be a plus to our approach. We want to be able to extend scholarship offers at the same time as admission offers so that students have a realistic idea of what their actual cost of attendance will be so they can decide if UR is the right place for them (hopefully cost is only one of the factors), so that is the reasoning behind the timing of this event. </p>

<p>UR Admissions</p>

<p>Hi mwalsh64--</p>

<p>While the program does focus on supporting high-need students, some of the awards each year are given to students who either don't qualify for need-based aid or don't even apply. Those students are selected based purely on the merit of the Bonner Application because they truly demonstrate a commitment to social justice and service. I hope you will apply if service is something you really care about! </p>

<p>UR Admissions</p>

<p>p.s. A big part of inviting everyone to the chat was also just to highlight the University commitment to service through a wide variety of programs, not just the Bonner Scholars.</p>