<p>I went to Senior programs at two different local schools where they both made the announcement of the total amount of merit scholarships the class had been awarded. This included all scholarships to every school that the students won, not just the schools that they ultimately had decided to attend. For one school, when I divided the amount of scholarships by the number of graduating seniors, it came out to an average of $22k/student. The other school averaged $135k/student. Is this typical for schools to announce. If so, what does your school average?</p>
<p>My school did not. </p>
<p>D’s school does and I think it’s terribly misleading. D’s in a tiny, middle college program. Most of the kids only apply to our state’s public schools because that is where their credits are most valuable. Our publics have some really nice need-based grant programs but they don’t dole out much merit. </p>
<p>This year will be totally warped because a handful of kids (mine included) applied to a ton of high merit private schools. These weren’t schools that were hard to get into and many were looked at only for the free application and merit potential. When we totaled D’s merit offers it looked pretty darned impressive but in the end, all of those schools were still going to require too much debt for her to attend. Ironically, my D will be attending a school that meets 100 percent need but offers no merit!</p>
<p>Anyway, I know the annoying counselor is just giddy being able to share such a big number this year but it really doesn’t mean anything.</p>
<p>My school did. </p>
<p>It may not be worth much value, but it’s nice hearing the total of money the class brought in. It’s always nice hearing it and knowing you contributed to that. 
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<p>My class broke the record from the previous class…I’m sure '14 broke ours with the brainiacs that graduated. </p>
<p>Our school did and it is nice to hear that the students did so well. It’s not $X per student though, and it’s a mix of different kinds: need based, merit, ROTC, athletic, and others, and they (thankfully) did not identify who got what. I think it’s an inspiration to families of younger students to try to achieve. As long as specifics are not identified, I think it’s a nice thing to say at graduation and congratulate the class for their efforts. </p>
<p>Our DD’s school does not announce the amounts per child, either, for which I was glad. It would have been embarrassing for her, since her amount was staggering. However, we went into the college application process knowing we had to chase BIG merit scholarships and schools in order to make college possible. Around here, it seems that schools announce the total scholarship amount as a point of pride and to “recruit” kids to their schools. In this area, kids are free to choose any public school to attend and are not tied to district boundaries.</p>
<p>At least one of our high schools doesn’t know the difference between merit-based and need-based money. All are called “scholarships.” Very misleading. </p>
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For one school, when I divided the amount of scholarships by the number of graduating seniors, it came out to an average of $22k/student. The other school averaged $135k/student. Is this typical for schools to announce. If so, what does your school average?
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<p>my kids’ small private high school does this, and it is misleading because although many have awards, the top kids are the ones with hundreds of thousands in merit awards. it is misleading to divide the total by the number f kids and suggest that each child is getting a lot.</p>
<p>My brother graduated from high school in 1979 and they did this. It was a boys catholic school so there was some merit money floating around, and almost every student was going to college. However, one guy had received something like 22 football scholarships, so that was as if 22 kids had received full scholarships.</p>
<p>It really doesn’t mean anything unless they also announce that the total for all the kids to go to college is $8 bazillion, and aren’t we proud they’ve received $40M.</p>
<p>In our area, several of the high schools list all the scholarships received by their graduating class. I started paying attention to them 8 years ago when my oldest was a hs freshman. I remember being so impressed as so many students got these huge scholarships. I didn’t understand at the time that most were college sponsored and that you only received them if you went to that university. I also didn’t understand until I started on my oldest’s college search that even a $88,000 scholarship to a LAC still meant that the cost of school would be $25,000+ annually (bringing it down to state level). In the 7 years that I have cut out these notices, I noticed that the total was getting bigger. My guess is because the common apps now mean students apply to 5-8 universities (and get money), compared to the 2-4 they use to apply to. At least our local public high schools don’t make a big deal about the numbers, but the private high school puts these numbers in their advertisements, etc. making a big deal that their 100 students received 2 million (or what ever) in scholarships. So misleading as maybe their students really only received $200,000 in scholarships they used (and about 5 to 10 of them got the majority of that money.) Even understanding this, I still pulled out these notices as it also listed smaller, local scholarships that my high school students might be able to earn. </p>
<p>Schools do this, I’m told. We didn’t TELL the high school our kid’s scholarship awards…none of their business.</p>
<p>Our graduation program did list local scholarship organizations that awarded scholarships, but not the amounts, in the graduation program.</p>
<p>If they are going to do this, they should only include the scholarships that the kids are able to utilize (i.e. only the merit scholarships from the college they are actually attending). Need-based aid shouldn’t be included either, IMHO. I think guidance counselors like to throw out these numbers, just like they like to get students to apply to the really highly-rated colleges, (even if they don’t attend) to show that their students were admitted to prestigious schools and are high-caliber students to boost their school profiles. What does this say, though, if you have many brilliant kids, who could get into an Ivy, but don’t even apply as they know they can’t afford it. Based on where students are accepted to and matriculate to, seem to be main gauge of the caliber of education at the school. I don’t think this is really a true calibration.</p>
<p>Our newspaper does a graduation insert for the 9 high schools in the area, writing a very nice article about that year’s class at each school and including a boxed area which lists Val. and Sal. information. These students list accomplishments, heroes, favorite books, movies etc. I was a little shocked with my son’s school val. listed his grants in the awards section along with his one scholarship. I don’t think I would want people to know my student received grants. Earned merit scholarships yes, but personal financial information like needing grants, definitely no. (Although a couple years ago they wrote articles about two students who got full-ride scholarships to 2 ivy schools. I guess there were not many, including the writer, who realized the only way they got these were for need as these schools do not give out merit scholarships.)</p>
<p>Our local HS announces the total amount for the graduating class from all universities regardless of which school a student chooses to attend. There are some families who choose to not divulge the information. They don’t announce “$X per student”, but simple math could produce that number for anyone who wanted it.</p>
<p>I don’t have any particular heartburn with the school “bragging” about scholarship $$ earned, even if they fudge the numbers by including all offers. It’s their way of trying to say “look at the quality of the education we provide”.</p>
<p>I have been to more than one graduation ceremony at other HS where they showed the scholarship name(s) and amount(s) each student received. I personally thought that was inappropriate, but others were fine with it. </p>
<p>I know some schools does that and it is totally bs. That indicates the bragging nature of the school. Some students may apply to a couple dozen schools and get admitted to multiple schools with scholarships. The total amount really means nothing if he/she can only use a small fraction of it. My D’s school does not do that. Not even the scholarship to the committed school is reported. </p>
<p>We were asked to report all financial aid from all schools and multiply it out by 4 years if applicable. So my DS would report the merit award he got from a private school even though he is not attending which, to me is meaningless. He has a music scholarship where he is attending, which is not a high dollar amount but it’s a good percentage of the in-state tuition cost. He also got an additional merit award which he heard about right after the deadline to turn in the info. We have not had the recognition night yet, but were informed that they would announce the class total.</p>
<p>Jeanne…we simply refused to provide the information when we were asked. Our kid got tons of offers of aid but took only one. We didn’t even give the school that amount…none of their business.</p>
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<p>Yes, my school has a specific program a few weeks before graduation that we give awards and such. We were told to submit ALL of our financial aid from ALL of the schools we applied to, regardless if we were attending or not. Other scholarships were added as well. At the program, the class’ total amount is calculated and announced. Also, the program book lists every senior in the class and what scholarships they received and how much. Some kids applied to 10s of schools, while others like myself, only applied to 2 or 3.</p>
<p>To those whose schools request this info…what happens if you refuse to provide it?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, your info doesn’t get put into the class total. I didn’t provide my financial aid info for one of the colleges that I applied to so that wasn’t applied to the class total, and it wasn’t listed in my school’s program.</p>