<p>D was asked to turn in copies of award letters from all colleges that offered her scholarships.
I called the school since it was unclear if they wanted only the scholarships she is accepting, or all offers. They wanted all offers. This doesn't make sense to me since totaling "all offers" is only a function of how many schools the good students applied to. (D applied to 3 schools and got around $200,000 in offers. I'm thinking that if she had more "school spirit" she would've applied to more schools and collected at least $1,000,000 for their "brag list.") </p>
<p>Does your kid's HS do this? Wouldn't it make more sense to total offers actually accepted?
I'm trying to figure out how this info. can be useful in comparing one school to another.</p>
<p>Ironically, D is a part-time/homeschooled student who is not allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies--but still, they want her stats. . .</p>
<p>Our school does this. Though they don’t ask for $$ amount, just the names of scholarships. I think it is silly - they end up reading those endless lists of irrelevant scholarships at the senior awards ceremony, which takes forever… The kids going to HYPSM usually have the shortest lists, as most schools they apply to do not give any merit scholarships…</p>
<p>I think our schools does that as the number is always astronomical.</p>
<p>I see your point about the number being somewhat a function of the number of schools to which you apply. But if a kid choose HYP over a full ride worth lots of $$$, I can see the school wanting to know that as well.</p>
<p>My high school did this. The total amount was never complete, because some students misunderstood that they wanted all $$, even those that weren’t going to be used (I didn’t submit anything because I didn’t understand what they wanted). My family figured it out by my sister’s graduation 4 years later and didn’t submit anything because we didn’t agree with the outcome.</p>
<p>I think it is misleading, as many students submitted merit scholarships for schools that they would not be attending. You may get money from 5 schools but you can only attend one of them…</p>
<p>In my urban school district, principals tout how much their students got in “scholarships” be it need-based FA or merit scholarships. “This graduating class has rec’d over $1.4M in scholarships (look how great we are!)”</p>
<p>A huge number sounds good as a sound byte but as we know, the aggregate number is irrelevant since one can only attend one school.</p>
<p>It certainly is a misleading stat for the uninitiated or the school board or community at large – at least how it’s used here.</p>
<p>My kids’ school did/does this too. The number is ridiculous, of course, but it has uses that I completely support:</p>
<p>– It communicates to students (and their parents) in 9th-11th grade that their family is not the only source of financing for college, and that if they apply themselves and pay attention to strategy they may have more choices than they think. This is extremely important in a school where at least half the students will be the first in their family to attend college.</p>
<p>– It creates a good feeling about the school, and boosts morale.</p>
<p>– It communicates to politicians, business leaders, and the public that the school and the education it provides is bringing resources into the community for the benefit of the students, and that money spent on the students’ education has something of an immediate return, not just a long-term one.</p>
<p>– It communicates vividly to alumni that the school – which may seem strange to them because it is full of girls and people of color – is still doing successfully exactly what it did for them: serving as a pathway to higher education for the children of largely working-class immigrants.</p>
<p>Also, I would note that out of 500+ graduates each year, there may be 15-20 who accumulate more than a couple merit scholarship offers, or for that matter more than a couple scholarship offers of any type. (I’m pretty certain that the school includes need-based scholarships in its calculations. Why wouldn’t it?) Applying to lots of colleges is pretty exotic there, and limited to a thin film of students at the top of the class. The number isn’t significantly distorted by counting them. (And, actually, I am not certain that the number they use has any double-counting in it. They talk about “awarded scholarships”, and it may be only those used where the student is going to enroll.)</p>
<p>Our schools do this and also report it in the profile sent to colleges. I’m not sure if that has any psychological effect on the colleges making decisions. </p>
<p>My D’s private school reported $9 million in scholarships for a senior class of 120 students ($75,000 per student). My S’s public school reported $13 million for a class of 700 students. ($18,571 per student) From that I guess you could make some conclusions about the advantages of the private school GC. But I have a hard time drawing any meaningful conclusions for our individual situation from a single number such as this. </p>
<p>At my S’s school they only read off three citations for each student. The student gets to pick which ones are read. Otherwise I imagine the ceremony could go on for hours and hours at a large school.</p>
<p>Here’s an idea: a top student could approach the guidance department and say, look, if you’ll pay for all my application fees, I will apply to a hundred schools that are likely to offer me a full ride, as well as the ones I really want to go to. With the common app and other simple online apps, this would be quite doable. Think of the stats the school could get!</p>
<p>Talk about irrelevant numbers. Your Ss school may have more kids going to public universities (and if we are talking about public flagships, they should feel great about that), but guess what, less aid becuase the tuitition is less.</p>
<p>I have a feeling we do, but I’ll find out today. I’ve always wondered about the special “Senior Awards Ceremony.” I mean, if each course that seniors take gives an award, it wouldn’t take but a few minutes to announce all the awards. The sports, choir, theatre, cheer and drill teams all give their awards at their banquets. The sheets are to be passed out today, so I’ll find out what they’re supposed to list.</p>
<p>Our school has a Senior Awards Night–recipients of scholarships, given by the school organizations, local organizations and universities, are honored. Only scholarships that will be used are counted, so college scholarships from schools you aren’t going to attend are not listed.</p>
<p>The HS my son graduated from and my daughter will graduate from collects this information and they list it both in the program and it is read with the students’ names at graduation (although I can’t remember if they list/read dollar amounts - I think they just note the awards without dollar amounts). </p>
<p>I understand that this can provide good information for advising students in the future as it allows them to determine which colleges are most likely to give aid and under what circumstances. I don’t have a problem with listing it in the program. But why do we have to waste everybody’s time reading it all at the ceremony? The one thing that we would like to know is where the kid is going in the fall. That is what could be announced at the ceremony: </p>
<p>John Q. Adams. John will be attending Boston College.<br>
Susan B. Anthony. Susan has enlisted in the Marine Corps and will begin basic training in July.
Richard C. Cheney. Richard will begin serving a 10 - 20 year sentence in the federal prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, at the conclusion of this ceremony.
Ima Goode Student. Ima will be attending the College of William & Mary.</p>
<p>LOL at Hunt’s comments! Our small public school announces a total, but lists individual scholarships next to each person’s name in the program, but no dollar amounts. The poster who said it’s a function of how many applications are sent out is absolutely correct. The tackiest part of our ceremony is when they asked graduates to stand, who are getting scholarship money from their chosen institution. Only about half of the students stood up, but I felt sorry for the girl next to my son, who remained sitting after announcing she was recruited to play a sport at her “big name” college.</p>
<p>This is kind of off-topic. OK, way off topic. </p>
<p>Do any of your local newspapers tie in to the annual Parade “What Do People Earn?” special section, which just ran last week? My 14yo saw the dad of one of his classmates, and his salary listed. He was surprised how much his friend’s dad makes.</p>