Our HS asks for award letters. I sent them the letters stating DS was awarded the merit awards and the amounts. I did not send the financial aid award letters, which also includes federal & state grants.
During Honors Society night, they usually announce the colleges and any awards the seniors were given. They also like to state that the graduating class of XXXX were awarded a combined scholarships of $2 million dollars; sounds impressive but is utterly ridiculous.
^^Similar to a cc poster who was awarded $280k-but she can’t possiby use all that since some is likely school-specific.
@sybbie719 if a student is getting a full ride to an Ivy League school…their income is below a certain threshold. It is not the school’s business to know this information, in my opinion. No, they won’t know the exact income, but folks would sure know the ballpark. Sorry, none of their business.
It is particularly none of their business if they publish this information publicly.
I might give merit award information for the schools where. Y kids matriculated, but need based aid…sorry. None of the school’s business.
ETA…I do think it’s fine to ask for this on a voluntary basis.
Just say “none.”
It’s absolutely none of their business.
I kind of think that it’s like those statistics that are along the lines of, “88 trillion dollars in scholarships go unclaimed every year!!” where they don’t bother to tell you what proportion of that is need- or merit-based scholarships or even what proportion of that are employee compensation benefits that are irrelevant to the general public (hint: it’s a lot). You could probably teach a short course on statistics abuse and data manipulation just using examples from educators that do this.
Ugh, this place.
Maybe it’s being used like it was in my kid’s case, where they totaled the awards and only mentioned them in aggregate on the graduation program and in remarks. E.g. “The class of 2014 are attending 36 different institutions of higher learning, and earned a total of $2.8 million in scholarships.”
Maybe as Sybbie pointed out, it’s to allow the guidance departments to offer better and more informed advice, so the students don’t have to come here looking for answers.
@guidedbywire : maybe that’s true. But it’s still none of their business and if someone does not want to disclose it they should not be forced to.
While we don’t force anyone to disclose information, do you think that the schools already don’t know this?
You know know that public schools do get information on FAFSA completion? Do you think that your school does not know what kids have a 0 EFC? They know every kid in transitional housing (homelessness) every kid in foster care, every kid who receives public assistance, food stamps, social security benefits, every kid with a court ordered retraining order, every kid involved with children’s protective services. In addition, if you work for a city/state information, your salary information is public record. These really are not any big secrets because most school personnel who write is going to write about the kids home environment, what parents do as part of the recommendation letter/school report /third party letters already has access to that information.
@sybbie719–It’s lovely that you offer this kind of in-depth financial aid counseling to your students, but I can guarantee that the typical overworked guidance department does little or no financial aid counseling whatsoever (and never will) and therefore has no valid reason to demand this information. It is no doubt being sought in this case so the school can pat itself on the back by making some meaningless claim about awards given to its students. I wouldn’t stand for this nonsense for two minutes.
Our guidance department is NOT allowed to ask about family finances…at…all. So how would having need based information be helpful to future students?
It’s sort of like the student on this forum who posted she got $280,000 in scholarships for her freshman year. It is so not likely that she is able to accept all of those awards.
Hopefully, your parents also have no expectations as far as receiving any type of guidance on financial aid from the school if they are not willing to have a dialogue
I am very uncomfortable with the school mandating this for everyone as a condition of graduation.
I can certainly understand wanting to publish an aggregate amount of scholarship money the senior class received - it’s a stupid bragging thing, and it means nothing at all, really - but it’s commonplace. What I do not understand is mandating it. What I REALLY do not understand is mandating the actual award letter be submitted. The EFC reveals private information, and no one should be required to disclose that information. To publish an aggregate, the school only needs to request a total of all merit scholarships the student receives - or they can request copies of the letters.
Sybbie, I understand your needs and how the letters assist you - and assist your students. However, collecting the info for a legitimate purpose, protecting the privacy of that info, and allowing it to be submitted voluntarily are key. Collecting the info en masse, with no explanation of how it will be used or how privacy will be protected, is not such a great thing … and making it mandatory is even worse.
A final thought: If a school uses need-based money in the aggregate it reports - “Our students received this much in scholarship money” - they should absolutely not do so. Students do not “earn” grants that are need-based … they receive them because of their financial situation. Merit scholarships and need-based grants are apples and oranges.
Right. The GCs cannot give financial,advice. They have a couple of financial aid nights per year with folks from outside of the school who discuss financial aid.
Can the GCs tell students to run the net price calculator on each college before applying? That might be the most valuable piece of financial aid advice they can give to college applicants without any financial privacy concerns.
As far as I know, GCs can discuss FA in very general ways that are not specific to any particular child. For instance, in a group setting, a GC could say something like: Ivies do not expect a family contribution if family income is below $50k. <= Saying that is asking anyone what their particular household income is.
However, if a GC has a student in his/her office, I don’t think s/he’s supposed to say things like: What is your family income? or…You get free lunch so you’re low income, so you can get lots of aid at X, Y, Z.
Yes…the GCs can suggest to all families that there are Net Price Calculators they should run. That is actually one of the suggestions the financial aid night folks give as well.
correction…
Ivies do not expect a family contribution if family income is below $50k. <= Saying that ISN’T asking anyone what their particular household income is.
My nephews’ high school requires that all students apply to at least 1 local state school or CC, just in case nothing else works out.
One of my friends convinced her daughter’s high school to print in the honors night program a notation that her daughter received a “merit” award from an Ivy. Um, I like my friend and I’m proud of her daughter, but that nearly full ride isn’t for merit.
I can understand that someone in the guidance office who wants to build up a database similar to sybbie719’s and who is fed up with students failing to state where their final transcripts are to go but somehow expecting that the guidance office will handle that anyway, might send out this kind of note.
However it probably isn’t legal to insist on this information in order to get a cap and gown. So the parents should ask why the guidance counselors are requiring this, what the information would be used for, and if necessary enquire about the specific legal grounds for insisting that the information be submitted in order for the student to participate in commencement activities.
I think sometimes people forget that schools are not: My house, my rules.