<p>This has been done at S"s school for years. No one has to give the information and it is not listed by name (though I have seen that done too). The awards listed are not financial aid awards though some may be merit within need type awards. The information is verified by the original letters.</p>
<p>I think the reason everyone at this school is so cooperative about participating is because so many of us got such good use out of the information that previous students left for us. Yes, the school uses the information for bragging purposes in that they will proudly announce that the class was awarded $x in scholarship awards. Sometimes, in reports about individual kids, awards are listed along with the colleges too, but ONLY if that information was given by the student/family. </p>
<p>I noticed that several kids got such great awards from Stetson, a school in Florida which is not one that is on the list of kids from this area. A quick check shows it be a school definitely worth considering and that it rewards some very good but not tip top kids with some noteworthy merit awards. There are a number of such instances where you can learn ever so much about how well kids from that school fare in terms of not just, entry to a college but in terms of merit money. This is especially valuable these days. It personally helped me in our search for merit money. THat with some naviance type stats with extra info really gives us a lot of specific information even if you don’t know who the kid specifically is. Sometimes you can figure it out if you know the enough kids and their choices. </p>
<p>I’ve never heard of anyone solicited for donations, but again the information is not listed by name. I did not hear much bragging either. The information is just compiled in a loose leaf binder by school so that you can research every single school reported by students from that highschool and what the outcome of the applications were including any merit awards. </p>
<p>I do believe that there was some information on financial aid but it was more in general terms whereas the merit money was specific down to the dollar amount and the name of the actual scholarships. I know a lot of parents in this area that really would love to have that information, but it is only for the use of students and families of that particular school.</p>
<p>My D’s school does this. All scholarships are listed in the graduation program, regardless of whether the student actually attends a school. No grants or other FA are listed. The scholarship amounts aren’t listed in the program but are compiled and used in the stat sheet included in the school’s admission brochure, e.g., “The class of 2009 was awarded over $7.5 million in scholarships.”</p>
<p>FWIW, the elementary schools in my area do the same thing. At the schools my Ds attended (well, one is only in 6th grade, but her school does the same thing), scholarships to high schools are listed in the program and are announced individually at graduation.</p>
<p>Scholarships are not listed in the graduation program. Nor are the schools that the student hasn’t selected. The chosen college is the only one listed.</p>
<p>Our HS does this (merit money only, not need-based) It’s really silly. Some of the parents send in letters from schools their kid hasn’t even applied to (like NM free rides) and the school adds them in. Some of us refuse to play along, so our kids’ equal offers go unreported…
They report it to the media “Graduating seniors earn X.X million in college scholarships” which if you dividie it out would mean nobody is paying to send their kid anywhere.<br>
What would be helpful to parents coming up would be a list of “merit money these kids got that yours might”. Things like what ACT score gets you in-state tuition at neighboring state schools. THAT would be helpful.</p>
<p>Haven’t seen it in the media unless a kid is featured for something else. In S’s school, it looked like most kids and families cooperated. I guess it’s how it is perceived from the get go. When you start as a freshman at that school, you can see the results and it helps with the admissions process. So you pay it forward. I never looked at it as a brag sheet.</p>
<p>I agree for reasons stated in posts 9, 28, and 41 - it is a way for parents to gather information they might not know otherwise, i.e. schools they may not have thought of for their upcoming kids. It tells the community yes we are educating students who are qualified to attend, are accepted to and are receiving aid (merit or need or both) so they can attend some really great schools. You may already know this but believe me there are easily 20x as many parents in your community who do not. A few years back when our local paper was featuring whole individual columns of kids who got a sports scholarships to local ccs but nothing who those who did well academically (we even had 2 go to H that year, practically unheard of here) I made it a point to talk to the editor about it. He said the paper had acknowledged the couple of hundred thousand in scholarships kids had received. I told him to give me a break as my own D could match that comment. He assigned a reporter to the subject, I rounded up 20+ kids from our three area high schools who either were going to well known (and sometimes not so well known ) colleges out of the area or who were receiving large scholarships from our state’s public universities. I also gave him the total $ I had been able to calculate from senior night awards, which was well over $6 million. The community needs to know we have kids who are doing well. So often all they hear about are the ones who get in trouble.</p>
<p>Our HS asks families to report how much aid (no distinction between merit and need) their graduate received from each college, then adds it all up and announces the total at graduation. Ridiculous not to distinguish between the two categories, and a really meaningless way to collect data for future advisement purposes. </p>
<p>It also seems misleading to announce total merit awards, when a few kids each applying to 15-20 colleges generous with merit could account for the bulk of the multimillion total.</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about --yes, which colleges give the best need and merit awards would be very helpful to share, but families can feel uncomfortable sharing need-based amounts because in small high schools, it is tough to keep information private. For example, if your kid is only one accepted to college X with a given award, and this is disclosed to the following year’s class during advisement, then your family’s level of need becomes obvious. How do other small schools work around this?</p>
<p>Our kids’ school requests the official letter, then prints only the students name and the name of the scholarship/college in the graduation program.</p>
<p>As others have pointed out, they use the rest of the information anonymously in their College/Career center as reference for rising seniors. Having worked in the College/Career center, I can tell you it is helpful to see where previous classes applied and were successful. I would not be supportive of posting the individual results with $ attached in the graduation programs, though.</p>
<p>When we were shopping for high schools a few years ago, my mother told me to be careful when reviewing high schools’ lists of where students were accepted to college. Rather, she said ask where they actually enrolled. One or two students could be admitted to a dozen or more top, competitive schools therefore making the list look far more impressive then deserved. This total scholarship is the same thing. Misleading.</p>
<p>However, I am 40something and my high school did the same thing 25 years plus.</p>
) colleges out of the area or who were receiving large scholarships from our state’s public universities. I also gave him the total $ I had been able to calculate from senior night awards, which was well over $6 million. The community needs to know we have kids who are doing well. So often all they hear about are the ones who get in trouble.</p>