<p>Somemom, it’s a combination of merit and anticipated merit. The OP said it was for younger students at the college, in anticipation of their later contributions that would be made, thanks to having studied abroad.</p>
<p>I think if I found out that my kid had applied to transfer, then accepted a summer scholarship and let me pay air fare before letting me in on her plans, I’d be a bit miffed, forget about the college! I think she should make her decision now. Is she willing to stay at Penn State another year even if she gets in to one of her transfer schools? Then take the scholarship and have a great time. If she really would “take the money and run,” I’d have her decline the scholarship (and pay me back for my plane change fee.)</p>
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<p>Not at all. People apply for jobs all the time, get offers, and then decide to stay in their current job. And consider this year’s freshmen (like the young woman in question) at this time last year. They had ideas of which college they wanted to go to, but through the spring, those ideas changed, and the “I’ll go to Wonderful U if I get accepted” turned into “Wow, Wonderful doesn’t seem so good now that I’ve visited. Proud member of Safety '14!” Lots of freshmen are not where they thought they’d be when they were high school seniors.</p>
<p>There’s no reason to believe that this 19-year-old will absolutely, no question, be at a different college next fall. She might not be accepted, maybe finances won’t work out, maybe she’ll get a boyfriend and decide to stay where she is, maybe she’ll discover a fantastic academic opportunity where she is or get a terrific research offer with one of her professors. She should keep her options open.</p>
<p>I also don’t see any ethical dilemma. As a currently enrolled student, she is entitled to apply for any program offered to any of the students in that university. That she is exploring other options in no way undermines that.</p>
<p>The only exception would be if the scholarship explicitly was conditioned on some post-scholarship obligation – such as a scholarship awarded for summer study coupled with anticipated enrollment in a specific course the following fall. Even so, unless the student has been accepted at a transfer college and is deciding to attend, I still don’t see a problem. The ethical dilemma wouldn’t arise until the time that the student makes the deposit at the transfer college, and then I think it would be merely a matter of an obligation to inform the office that awarded the scholarship of her plans. (Again, only if there was something explicit in the scholarship that made it clear that she had some obligation to the university post-scholarship).</p>
<p>Ethical questions often concern issues of mutuality. If the college had been told that she was hoping to transfer, evidenced by two actual applications to transfer, would they have awarded her the scholarship? I think the clear answer is no. The scholarship was not made on the basis of past merit, but on the basis of future contributions to the college community. Given a choice of two legitimate candidates, and full information, the college would not have chosen her.</p>
<p>Is she legally obligated to tell when she applies for the scholarship? Certainly not. But given the clear purposes of the scholarship, how would you feel if you were denied the scholarship that went to her under these circumstances? There are ethical obligations that come with choosing to be part of a community.</p>
<p>Is that the way the world usually operates? Why, no! Does that change the ethics of the situation? Not in the least. </p>
<p>By the way, my younger d. was just faced with a very similar situation. She was offered a job, paying her 55k plus half of her graduate school tuition (where she is to be a full-time student), financial aid for her qualifying exams, and five weeks vacation, and full benefits, to begin in December. But she had already accepted a very prestigious international summer internship that pays extremely well, and that often leads to full-time offers. Of course, she may not get one. Or if she did, she could accept the first offer as well, and let the offer go later. After consulting with her faculty advisors and career office, she called the first place, telling them that she didn’t think it would be ethical for her to accept their offer at this time, even though she was very interested in the company. They told her that not only was she the number one pick by every department in the company, but now she could call them at any time if other things didn’t work out, and there’d likely be a job waiting.</p>
<p>So many thoughtful replies! I knew this wouldn’t be easy. Here are two more relevant facts:</p>
<p>As somemom asked, it is a merit scholarship, not need-based. And it is specific to her major, not general. In other words, it’s not a university -wide scholarship, but awarded by her (relatively small) department. This further complicates the ethical issue in my mind; not only could someone else use that money, but my daughter probably knows that person.</p>
<p>I hadn’t thought about the transfer deadline. Even though she has already applied to two other schools, I think Cardinal Fang is correct that the admission decisions won’t be known until early summer. To me, that serves to lessen the ethical problem.</p>
<p>So nice to read all of your thoughts on the subject, thank you.</p>
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If so, one risk that the university takes is that some of the students won’t fulfill their expectations. Another student could get ill or have to leave the university due to family circumstances. That’s just part of the process. Just the same as the student who enrolls in a university is taking a risk that their expectations won’t be filled – the student might not get the courses they want, they may have profs who are not as capable of teaching as they had hoped. But there are risks entailed whenever someone makes an advance payment for anything.</p>
<p>Mini, the difference in the situation you laid out is that your daughter already had accepted the internship at the time she was offered the job. The OP’s daughter has apparently not yet heard back from the transfer colleges.</p>
<p>She is obligated to do only those things that the terms of the scholarship require. (Such as to attend and participate in the designated study abroad program).</p>
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<p>No, I said that my daughter is a younger student, not that the scholarship is limited to such.</p>
<p>So if it is major specific, would some here say she is not allowed (ethically) to change her major?
Or another thought- what if student attends this school with this 4 yr scholarship, but after 1 yr decides that college learning is not right for her; and wants to quit? Some here would contend that the ethics of accepting the scholarship would bind her into continuing college.</p>
<p>One applies for opportunities all of the time in life, different ones and often one does not broadcast doing so while applying for opportunities in the status quo because, yes, you would compromise your chances of getting the opportunity if you do so.</p>
<p>My son applied and got a job promotion at the same time he was looking at other jobs. No way he would have gotten the promotion had his current employer knew that. He might even have gotten let go. Some companies are that way. When he got his promotion, that was a factor in staying put when he also got other job offers. It increased his chances of staying at the job because without the promotion he would have certainly left the company. </p>
<p>I don’t see much difference in the situations.</p>
<p>I’m having a hard time reconciling the notion of “the college’s expectation of future benefit” in all this. If the primary reason to decline the study abroad scholarship is that it’s intended to benefit the college during her sophomore year … wouldn’t she be ethically required to decline the scholarship for ANY reason that might cause her to miss her sophomore year? Like:
- plans to take up motorcycling; or
- plans to join protesters in Libya; or
- plans to take an excursion to rebel-held areas of Peru; or
- plans to build houses in some disease-plagued part of the world; or
- plans to have invasive surgery up returning from her trip; or
- etc. etc. etc.</p>
<p>“Mini, the difference in the situation you laid out is that your daughter already had accepted the internship at the time she was offered the job.”</p>
<p>You misread my post. Not only didn’t my d. have a competing job, not only hadn’t she been offered a competing job, she hadn’t even applied for a competing job.</p>
<p>“wouldn’t she be ethically required to decline the scholarship for ANY reason that might cause her to miss her sophomore year?”</p>
<p>It might be ethically incumbent about her to INFORM the givers of the scholarship if her plans were to bear materially on their reasons for offering the scholarship in the first place.</p>
<p>Remember that this scholarship was not likely offered based on past merit, but expectation of future contribution. Of course, there is no “legal” requirement for her to do anything. The OP didn’t ask about that.</p>
<p>A few thoughts to add…</p>
<p>Might the university offer these merit scholarships to attract high stat (GPA/SAT) matriculants in order to boost their averages for the incoming class? If yes, the D has fulfilled this benefit to school.</p>
<p>Some schools advertise in marketing material/tours that they extend scholarships for study abroad to increase desirability of that school/department to HS seniors shopping for schools that offer such opportunities. It may have been one of the perks that drew D to this U. By applying for the scholarship and receiving it, she was pursuing the best opportunities at her school. Even if she now wants to explore other options (not the same as committing to attend another school next year), she may find participating in the study abroad actually bonds her to her present school, introduces her to more like-minded students at that large university–in short, does everything the U would want to retain a good student.</p>
<p>This reminds me of something that happened at my kids’ private school. The administration got a “bright idea” to send several teachers to some pricey convention across the country. The idea was that these teachers would come back and share what they had learned and make the school better for future years. </p>
<p>It was a week-long convention that also involved hiring subs for the teachers while they were gone. It was in a “touristy location” so very desirable to go. </p>
<p>Many of us parents were annoyed that the profits from a fundraiser we had worked so hard for were going to this boondoggle…and voiced that to the principal. </p>
<p>The seminar was held about a month before school ended. Well, guess what, of the 6 teachers that were sent, 3 announced after they got back that they had accepted jobs with other schools and would not be returning in the fall. So, there went all their “new knowledge”. Obviously, these teachers knew that they had “other irons in the fire” before they went. The school had never thought to require some kind of stipulation that those who were sent would return for at least another year of teaching. </p>
<p>I don’t think the principal looked us parents in the eye for a long time.</p>
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Where do you get that? Scholarships generally spell out what their expectations are. </p>
<p>It would be unethical for the d. to accept the scholarship money, fly to the country abroad, and then fail to show up or participate in the actual scholarship program. </p>
<p>But generally a “scholarship” for study abroad for an undergraduate isn’t based on a future condition. If it is for a school-sponsored program, the scholarship is generally granted in the hopes that the student will represent the school well while studying abroad… not worrying about what the student will do after she gets back.</p>
<p>Look, I know my position isn’t popular. It isn’t the way the world usually is said to work (though I have lots and lots of experience to the contrary). I’m quite aware. Hey, I’m 61 years old! But I don’t choose to collapse the ethical into the legalistic, I don’t accept that the world has to be dog-eat-dog, and I don’t believe that any of us really gain by acting as atomistic individuals without regard for the interests of others, or entering into agreements without a feeling of mutuality.</p>
<p>By informing the program that she may be transferring (or is planning to transfer), the program has multiple options - they can decide to try to convince her to stay (even more perks!), they can decide that they don’t care at this point (the scholarship has already been awarded), or they can ask her to return it (or, if no agreement is signed, they can negotiate to have it rescinded.) I think informing them would be the “right” thing to do. </p>
<p>And I’m aware that most people have been trained to feel differently.</p>
<p>This isn’t a matter of being “trained” – the kid isn’t selling herself into slavery. She applied for funding for a summer program that she intends to enroll in. Her obligation starts and ends there.</p>
<p>“Not at all. People apply for jobs all the time, get offers, and then decide to stay in their current job.”</p>
<p>But do they accept to be the one person from their department that goes to an all-expenses paid conference in Dubai for a month to represent the company and bring back those skills to the company, when they know there’s something like a 50-50 chance they won’t actually be coming back?!?</p>
<p>I would be really angry if someone I employed did that and in fact, where I worked it happened so often, though we asked respondents if they intended to stay (I think at a university it’s generally assumed you stay for four years because most do), we also had them sign a contract to pay back the expenses in full if they left before six months were up, and we sent that to their new employers as well.</p>
<p>Because you don’t just give away money like that.</p>
<p>That said, this is college and an educational opportunity intended for students at the college, so it’s not as clear-cut as it would be in a job situation. Still, I think that she should tell them.</p>
<p>And again, if a student accepts the scholarship INTENDING to stay–intent is key–but then realizes she can’t, forfeiting the following three years of tuition is the noble thing to do but she is not obliged to pay back the year.</p>
<p>Here we have a student who must have applied knowing that she might very well not stay. That is different. It’s not like, embezzlement or anything. LOL I just agree with her mom that it’s not the most ethical thing to do.</p>
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Not necessarily. I know people–especially when they are attending a highly selective school on financial aid–who apply to multiple schools as a transfer applicant with the intent of “deciding later.” They might be unhappy but not miserable; their original school might not be a terrible choice, but they’d like to see if there are better choices available. And even if accepted to transfer, the student might decide that it isn’t really what they really want to do.</p>
<p>IMHO, OP’s D is not being unethical because she DOESN’T know for sure that she will leave if given the least opportunity (i.e. an acceptance).</p>
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As has been stated already, is it unethical to apply to my state university as a safety and write an essay about all of the exciting research opportunities I hope to pursue there, if (with full information) I would have attended any other school on my list if finances permit? I would answer this question with a clear no. Did your D also participate in–or avoid–such a practice during her college applications, mini?</p>
<p>In the case of Mini’s D, accepting an offer and then declining it is equivalent to accepting an offer of transfer admission and then deciding not to go (or pay) in September. If you tell a company that you are going to work for them in September, then you should ethically keep that commitment.</p>
<p>I don’t buy the assumption that accepting a summer scholarship is tantamount to an ethical commitment to attend that university in the fall. It is, however, an ethical commitment to attend the summer study abroad program.</p>
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I dispute the validity of your assumption. The universities I am familiar with all do NOT make the assumption that their first-year class will stay for 4 years; in fact, they work extremely hard to keep retention rate up, and accept that despite these efforts, it is highly unlikely to achieve a 100% retention rate.</p>
<p>I also don’t think it is unethical for a student to accept a scholarship to her safety school with the intention of transferring “up” the next year. That student may well, and often will, change her mind after a year of experience and faced with leaving new friends.</p>