<p>My S’ high school does this, has for years. It looks much nicer to include all scholarship offers rather than those just accepted. That said, the information is gathered via senior survey, so when I hear the massive amount of $$ offered the senior class, I keep in mind that some exaggeration may have taken place when reporting the dollar amounts.</p>
<p>d’s public school only wants to know about those for the college one is attending. They ask the name of the scholarship also. Although I suspect they count need and merit scholarships for the total, the scholarship names are published so one could figure it out. I would have to be really bored.</p>
<p>Our school does this as well as publishing total scholarship money offered in the newspaper along with a list of colleges they were accepted to. They just like to toot their own horns.</p>
<p>Our HS used to do this and publish the list of names and amounts in the paper. And they totaled everything, all offers from all schools. But it was merit and not FA. With privacy laws they no longer do this. Now they have scholarship night, and present only local awards. But these are generally need based awards. They have a well developed local scholarship network, with a single application for many awards. But these generally require tax returns and other financial info. So now the kids with lots of merit offers with no need do not get recognized. There must be a way to recognize both in a sensible way.</p>
<p>Son’s high school does this. There is a person at the high school who is designated to compile all the scholarships. For the school system’s considerable PR efforts, I suspect they want to know all the offered scholarships. I hope that at the Senior Awards Night that they only announce the scholarships actually accepted. I believe this is what they did at my older son’s award night (different high school within the same school system).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The aggregate number could also be a function of how poor the community is, if they don’t differentiate between need-based and merit-based.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Aren’t people using their brains? These numbers are totally irrelevant. It’s like asking everyone in the community to add up all their bowling scores.</p>
<p>Our h.s does this too. After awards night the local paper usually prints the total scholarship dollars offered to graduating seniors (no names, just amt.).
When S1 was a senior his honors Eng. teacher required them to show her proof that they had applied to college and also applied for at least three scholarships.</p>
<p>D’s school requires a copy of the award letters (I suppose to make sure there is no exaggeration, and that these truly are “merit” scholarships). </p>
<p>Problem is that once school X was chosen, D pitched all the info, including award letter,from school Y. School Z’s award letter has become scratch paper next to the computer with various names and phone numbers scribbled all over it–I’m sort of embarrassed to copy that and give it to the school. </p>
<p>Now I do see the value of collecting this information for the counselors’ future reference in advising students–“College A offered a student from our school with these stats $$$ last year, but college B only offered $. And here’s college W that I never even heard of that offered our student $$. . .maybe other students should check it out, etc.”</p>
<p>Do they do that with homeschools?</p>
<p>The school that is asking for the info. is a public high school. (D is a homeschooler who attends this school part-time).</p>
<p>Our local hs asks for this sort of information in a general sort of way. They add it all up and put a bullet in the School Profile that reads something like, “In 2008 graduating seniors at XXX Senior High School were offered college scholarships totalling 4.6 million dollars.” Then they report this figure to the Board of Education, which in turn reports the same thing to the public in a self-congratulatory press release. I doubt it makes any impression at all in admissions offices that read the Profile, but the administrators and Board seem to feel it has some PR value.</p>
<p>Our school must do something like this because I have seen the school district release numbers from each school. I do know that the graduation program lists names of students and what scholarships they received. It is really a joke because it depends largely on what school the child is attending. Last year many of the top students (including a val) were not listed. Meanwhile students who are in the middle of the class grade-wise are listed because they will be attending a college which gives merit for a 3.0 GPA or they have gotten an award from the athletic boosters or something.</p>
<p>So its only for those who go to public schools?</p>
<p>It’s PR for the school. Every school where I taught did it, as did my D’s school. They announce it at the awards ceremony and possibly at graduation. One student I know even presented the mass mail-out letter that everyone received from one school that said that if the student applied he/she would receive $10,000.00.</p>
<p>Our hs did not do this. In fact at the Senior Awards ceremony they only acknowledged the local scholarships typically valued at less than $500 and one large national(Coca-Cola?) for $20,000. Our son accepted the Rensselaer Medal scholarship valued at $60,000 which was obtained thru his hs and was not mentioned during the ceremony. Go figure.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hear, hear, if participation in the ceremony is important to you.</p>
<p>My oldest son’s high school asks for all results including merit offers. They compile them so future students can get a good idea what the classes before them go in terms of merit money as well as how they fared in admissions. Almost everyone cooperates, from what I can see. It gives a treasure trove of information.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that anyone would supply this information to a school. Our school doesn’t do this, and frankly, I think the amount of awards my kid got involves my personal financial situation (“Now that Guinevere won that big scholarship, surely you can afford to buy some raffle tickets!”) and is none of their business, especially since her achievement had a whole lot more to do with her own efforts than anything the school ever did. (I hate the “WE got kids into blah blah colleges” thing some schools do–uh, no you didn’t, the students got themselves in.) I might share some general info with her guidance counselor (e.g., “X college gave her an unexpectedly big merit award”) if I thought it would help others in the future, but not the actual numbers and certainly not for the purpose of throwing together some meaningless statistic for bragging purposes.</p>
<p>With a graduating class of 600+, we’re lucky they have enough time to call out all the names, much less tell a story about each grad!</p>
<p>^^ Bravo, MommaJ. We share the same sensibility.</p>
<p>Tell them you got a full ride to Noneya College. (As in none ya business). Knowing the school staff here, they’d probably print it in the newspaper.</p>