<p>D's university has advised students that the terms of the merit scholarships are being changed effective this year "to support our students in graduating within their maximum award term." Previously the scholarships were offered for a maximum of 8 semesters, and required a 3.25 gpa. D's had no trouble meeting the gpa requirement. She will easily graduate in 4 years; perhaps even 3.5 given her AP credits.</p>
<p>The new requirements still limit the scholarship to 8 semesters, lower the gpa to 3.0, but require that the student earn 30 semester credits from this university each year or the scholarship will not be given in the following year. Earn 29 credits, and no scholarship for the remaining years. </p>
<p>What particularly bothers me is that D's major requires a term of study abroad interning for a non-profit, and a maximum of 8 units can be earned for this. Because a lot of nonprofits in the developing world aren't located near a university with one of this university's study abroad programs, getting 4-6 more units of this university's credits is going to be tough. They're allowing students to go to summer session -- only at this university this summer -- but it won't apply next year which is when D was planning to do the study abroad, and summer session isn't covered under the scholarship.</p>
<p>I am unhappy that the rules are being changed midstream. We had thought that D might do the study abroad during a semester when she might only take 8 units, and forego financial aid for that semester in favor of doing work for a nonprofit in a less developed area, but this change would mean that she'd lose her scholarship for senior year -- three semesters lost out of the eight originally promised, and all this for a kid with a stellar college gpa.</p>
<p>She didn't realize the gotchas on this one, but they loom pretty large to me. I thought that a deal was a deal when she enrolled, but while she's more than kept up her end, they don't seem to feel the same way. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I wonder if the college has even realized the unintended consequence of this new policy. I’d call them on it. They may not realize the difficulties this would impose on students like your D.</p>
<p>I would contact the school and present your D’s scenario. They may not be aware of any negative scenarios.</p>
<p>They really should NOT be worsening their scholarship for current holders. They can “worsen” them for future students, but not for current students.</p>
<p>Their offered scholarship that your D accepted was a contract and they need to honor it.</p>
<p>I agree, call and find out how they plan to treat your D’s situation. I would ask what papers she needs to fill out to have an acception due to her major’s requirements.
And yes, my blood pressure would be sky high just asking… agree that they should put these new rules in place for incoming freshman.</p>
<p>How has this information come to you? Letters? Emails? Did they address your D situation specifically, or was this some general announcement? How much discussion has there been regarding the individual consequences to specific students and programs? Can you fill in any more details?</p>
<p>I’m with others who say to contact the school who may really be out to lunch on how this will affect current students.</p>
<p>A contract is a contract. I know that our DS had to sign an acceptance letter for his graduate scholarship that specified their offer and his responsibilities to keep it.
I wouldn’t accept the school reneging on some of the parameters of an offer.</p>
<p>Sylvan – a postcard came to our home address saying that changes have been made, and referring us to the university’s website for the details. It applies to all the university’s undergraduate multi-year merit scholarships from National Merit on down, but neither it nor the site on the web suggest any flexibility except in the case of a medical problem. I would guess that D got a pretty similar email, but she probably wouldn’t have seen the nuances of it. If I didn’t read and write a whole lot of business deals and critique legislative drafts I might not have seen the problem either. </p>
<p>To be even more helpful, the website doesn’t make it at all clear who is responsible for the policy. I guess I’ll make some phone calls on it tomorrow.</p>
<p>Normally I’m a big fan of D dealing with things herself, but this policy is one only a lawyer could love and I don’t think she’s yet up to language lawyering.</p>