<p>My son just told me that the counseling center at his high school has requested copies of all the financial aid offers from his accepted schools so they can add it to some list of "scholarships won" for the senior class, and probably after his name in the graduation program. </p>
<p>Two things: All of the schools he was accepted at were full-needs schools that don't offer merit aid. Secondly, he applied to a lot of schools (13) and was fortunate enough to be accepted at 11 of them. Our income is very low this year, so the aid offered at all the schools was either a full ride or at most, a $5,000 family contribution. So, we're talking literally millions of dollars worth of aid.</p>
<p>I think it's great to list merit awards that a student accepts -- it reflects well on the student and on the school. Need-based aid, though, is a different story -- all it does is reflect how poor we are. Plus, I think it's misleading to list amounts from schools that he won't attend.</p>
<p>I would appreciate other perspectives on this. My inclination is to provide the HS with the award letter from the college he will attend, with the reminder that none of this is merit aid. Other opinions?</p>
<p>Wow, this is such bs - I would give the school <em>nothing</em>, It’s not their business, plus it’s ridiculous that they either don’t understand the difference between financial aid and merit scholarships or are deliberately conflating the two to glorify their school.
And to list financial aid, or even merit awards from ELEVEN different schools and use that to glorify the school - totally, utterly ridiculous and pathetic.</p>
<p>On edit, it’s also an invasion of privacy for the school to find out what the EFCs of all the families are.</p>
<p>Give them nothing. It is none of their business. It would be none of their business if it was merit aid either. You don’t need to go into any of this with them. Just tell them you’re respectfully declining to share that information because it’s unseemly to do so.</p>
<p>My high school also asked for these and I didn’t supply that information to them… I did tell them where I was accepted and rejected for their school records, but that was it.</p>
<p>Its inappropriate for the school to display this. If they wanted the information purely for advising purposes, and kept it confidential I would give it to them. Not for this. Is this a public or private HS? Are they trying to justify their tuition?</p>
<p>What they are really looking for is merit awards and most kids are eager to show off. While impressive, your child’s awards are not merit. I would kindly decline.</p>
<p>I would suggest you NOT send them. Instead write a polite letter saying your child will be attending **** University…and you would prefer NOT to include any financial aid information.</p>
<p>If they get testy with you, tell them it’s a violation of your PRIVACY rights to have information about YOUR family income and assets placed in a public publication. That should shut them up.</p>
<p>No, don’t do it. It is none of their business, end of story! </p>
<p>Some schools like to “brag” in dollar amounts how much their seniors were offered, and they tend to lump merit aid & need-based aid together, just to inflate the amount. </p>
<p>I feel that is like asking for a copy of your tax return!</p>
<p>Wow, it is so interesting how you all have interpreted the school’s request! </p>
<p>Our school district produces a very nice pdf file available on the their website (they used to print a newspaper) that highlights the accomplishments of the seniors in our district and lists all the graduates. It’s almost like a little yearbook for seniors. Students who have received scholarships are listed (with their senior photos). I’ve always thought of it as a nice way to showcase these accomplished students, and I look forward to seeing my daughter in it with her scholarships.</p>
<p>The reactions above seem so negative.</p>
<p>But that being said, since the awards the OP is talking about were based on need and not merit scholarships, I would, as other posters have advised, respectfully decline to give them the information.</p>
<p>upstate…Our D1’s school does a similar thing for their Senior Awards Night presentation, but does a slideshow showing where the students have decided to attend college and any scholarships they’ve won. I can understand the reluctance to release private financial information, but I didn’t perceive it in that light.</p>
<p>If the school is actually looking for information from all the schools the student was accepted to, I don’t think that’s necessary though.</p>
<p>I just typed up what he received from the school he was attending, and sent it in an email. They didn’t ask about what the schools offered that he declined.</p>
<p>I also don’t see what the big deal is. Most of my son’s awards were need based as well.</p>
<p>Given some, uh, “dishonesty” in the past, our high school requires proof before they will list any scholarships/honors in the bulletin at the senior awards assembly. They can no longer simply take someone’s word for it. A fin aid award letter is one way to supply proof. Other school award letters are another. </p>
<p>With the hundreds of kids the hs processes every year, I find it diffucult to believe they notice or even care about anybody’s financial situation.</p>
<p>You can refuse. The reason the high schools want the information is to help future students. If your privacy is more important to you, then by all means do not release the information. For merit awards, acceptances and waitlists, share the info, as it does not touch on financial issues.</p>
<p>Also ask what the GCs are going to do with the info. It may just be entered anonymously into a data base for them to use as a resource and not be on any list that is publicly bandied. I don’t think financial aid awards and amounts should be listed publicly for privacy reasons, but I have no problems having the information entered in the logs for the GC’s to use. </p>
<p>Utlimately it is up to you what information you want to share. Be aware the way kids are these days, the details may be all over FAcebook and the local kids’ “talk groups” already.</p>
<p>Just refuse. It’s is a violation of your privacy to have it publicly stated that your child received “full rides” (or close to it) to schools that are “need based” only. </p>
<p>Last year, my nephew (the Val) was accepted to Stanford and the Sal was also accepted. At graduation it was announced that the Sal got a full ride scholarship to Stanford. It was ridiculous. All it meant was that the Val (with higher stats) was full pay, while the Sal was low income. A violation of privacy for BOTH families. Many families do not want such info broadcasted to the entire community.</p>
<p>At the two HS graduations that I attended last spring, both of the principals proudly announced that the graduating class had collectively received $X in scholarship money. All I could think of at the time was, “Heck, two or three really top kids who applied to a bazillion colleges/universities each could account for just about all of that so-called Grand Total.” This kind of information is meaningless.</p>
<p>What is useful for the guidance office for future counseling is: My kid received full-need at A, B, and C. My kid received nearly full need at D, E, and F, and our family could make those work if we stretch ourselves a bit. My kid did not receive enough need-based aid in order to attend G, H, and I so those are completely off the table.</p>
<p>It’d be great if the counseling office was gathering data on affordability to help next year’s class, but are there really any GCs who can drill down to that level? Just getting the likelihood of admission is tough enough. The financials are even more uncertain. One family’s version of “stretching ourselves a bit” is another’s “completely unaffordable”. </p>
<p>It would be great if Naviance could be amended to have a quick thumbs up/down on the financials, but it would have to be anonymized. </p>
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<p>Well, a fake fin aid letter is easy enough to djinn up. But seriously, do people really care enough about something like this to make up a scholarship? Don’t people have better things to lie about? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Actually, they are not. They are looking for EVERYthing, merit-based and need-based to boost THEIR numbers. They want to be able to brag to new families about “thier” results. Pure marketing BS, which borders on mis-information. Of course, I’m sure that they word it correctly: “Last year, our students earned a gazillion dollars in merit and financial aid…” (all the while ignoring the word “need”)</p>
<p>My daughter’s school did that. They would make grandiose statements about how the class received so many millions of dollars in scholarship money. It was all very deceptive as the numbers were not money the students were actually going to receive, but included totals they had been offered. (so if a student was accepted at ten schools and had $100,000 at each then the school would add $1,000,000 to their total).</p>
<p>We didn’t tell them anything about the scholarship my daughter got. We really disliked some of the bragging stuff they did and were not inclined to share the information with them.</p>
But seriously, do people really care enough about something like this to make up a scholarship? Don’t people have better things to lie about? :rolleyes:</p>