<p>I agree with the majority of people who think this info is meaningless and none of the HS’s business … I also take issue with the fact that they could be gathering info for future classes. One would like to think that a school that is generous w/need based aid would be so for future classes, too – but these are soooo subject to change … by person, by year, by need – and all parents – except those who have not yet gone through the process know this … This info is confusing to parents who have not YET gone through it. Knowing my kid got X dollars in need based aid tells you nothing … you don’t know how “poor” i had to be to get it - or what the requirements are from the school i got it from are … I’m curious to know what the school says about why they need this info and what they’re using it for – and their reply when you tell them that this info so subject to so many different variables.</p>
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<p>mom2, this is the kind of situation that led to my public hs demanding “proof” of scholarship. No need-based awards get listed, only real merit awards. No dollar amounts, either, just the name of the scholarship or type of talent award and the school that made the offer. Everybody gets to list where they will attend school.</p>
<p>You are likely not to have to give your student’s high school proof of anything if you don’t feel like doing so. Most high schools will just send that final transcript to where ever requested. No proof of anything.</p>
<p>I personally don’t have any problems with giving out info on merit awards and the outcoms of acceptances. Not so with financial aid as it does get into personal territory, but some folks are not happy and refuse to give out the acceptance and denial letters for perusal either making a lot of schools’ info suspect if they include info they have not checked directly.</p>
<p>Wow, I guess I touched a nerve here! Thanks, everyone, for your responses. I did clarify the request with the counseling office of his public high school, and indeed they are planning to add my son’s totals to their list of “scholarships” received. They do not care if it is merit or need-based, and they don’t care if he will attend the school that offered the aid or not. Also, they are not interested in gathering any metrics that might help future seniors. </p>
<p>Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I declined to provide them with any information. Had he received any merit-based aid, I would have been happy to give them that information. Thanks for everyone’s input!</p>
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<p>You’d think they would, but apparantly claiming a “full ride” to Whatever U is the end-all be-all to some. Crazy, huh?</p>
<p>@ordinary, " …just the name of the scholarship or type of talent award and the school that made the offer."</p>
<p>Even this can be confusing. In my FA Awards last year, Duke listed a “Duke Scholarship” and WUStL listed an Eliot Scholarship, both of which are simply need based grants.</p>
<p>^^Exactly. My S attended a need-only college, but was awarded a named “scholarship” to fulfill the need-only college grant.</p>
<p>Upstatemom, we live in this information age, I mean how much information do we have to give up? “Just say no”, that can apply to a lot of things these days!</p>
<p>Last year, D’s HS did the same thing. We provided ONLY the info for the school she accepted and planned to attend and for a couple of outside competitive scholarships she received. Come graduation, they listed the scholarships she was also offered at the local CC and the local state U…provided by the schools to the GC. The list was so long it was kind of embarrassing. The CC ones she never accepted, and the state U ones she accepted as a contingency in case funding for her dream school did not come through, and the U KNEW she was probably not going there. We were not pleased that they violated her privacy in this manner.</p>
<p>For our high school, it is all voluntary. But it’s funny, we just got an email from them asking us to submit the info (if we want to) and to attach copies of the award letters (didn’t know until now that they, too, want proof). </p>
<p>I agree that it can be confusing to families coming up the line behind us–it was to me 20 years ago when we first moved to this district and I read the newspaper. I didn’t understand that it could be all meaningless unless the student actually WENT to the college giving the scholarship. But it also showed me that there was a lot of money out there to be had, and I felt encouraged… So I will submit the information to our school because if it can encourage another family, I am happy to share!</p>
<p>While I can understand a GC wanting need-based aid info for private use only (to see how schools are meeting need), none of that info should be made public, nor should it be mandatory to provide it.</p>
<p>And, I know from my own kids’ high school experience, they love to mention school name and merit award at assemblies so that younger students will be informed/inspired to apply to those schools as well if merit is wanted/needed.</p>
<p>I have seen mostly public schools in our area do this. At the end of the year they will announce “School X seniors received 10 million dollars in scholarship offers”, or something to that effect. They lump merit and financial aid together. To the OP, I would not give them the information, since, by default it reveals your financial information which you are not obligated to give them.</p>
<p>I don’t think financial aid packets should be divulged except in anonymous form in the counselor’s books. A problem that occurs when others find out who is getting financial aid, the green eyed monsters start their jealousy dance, and people start trying to count others’ money. My eyebrows raised when I found out about a certain family who did get significant fin aid who lives a very high flying life. None of my business, I know, but, whew.</p>
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<p>If you care, you might point out to the GC that s/he is probably violating federal privacy law to disclose such information. And perhaps violating state privacy law as well (as would definitely be the case in California).</p>
<p>Frankly, I wish GCs would ask to (PRIVATELY) see FA packages at various schools so that they wouldn’t be so clueless and say such things like, “don’t worry about affording college, financial aid will take care of that.” </p>
<p>Obviously, such info wouldn’t be mandatory nor should it be publicized, but it might serve as an eye opener to many GCs who think that colleges are just throwing around major grants to everyone, and don’t seem to understand the concept of “gapping.”</p>
<p>*I don’t think financial aid packets should be divulged except in anonymous form in the counselor’s books. A problem that occurs when others find out who is getting financial aid, the green eyed monsters start their jealousy dance, and people start trying to count others’ money. *</p>
<p>I agree…that’s why need-based info needs to be kept private. </p>
<p>As for privacy regarding merit announcements…yes, that is also a bit of a violation of privacy…but for some reasons schools seem to get away with announcing “good news” like merit scholarships, honor rolls and NMSF status, even though such disclosures indicate who has high grades/stats, and by default indicate who didn’t. </p>
<p>At my kids’ high school, when they announce the merit scholarships from colleges that give assured scholarships for certain stats, it’s like an announcement of who got high test scores, who got good test scores, etc.</p>
<p>I see the situation a bit differently. Apparently some of the schools stepped up with some very nice need-based awards. It might be nice to pass on that information to your high school, so that some other kids with need would know of schools that have proven to be very charitable. It seems like a nice gesture to help others that could possibly share your own good fortune.</p>
<p>^^^ As I mentioned in my original post, these are all meets-needs schools. The award letters show that the meets-needs schools, well–met our need. Students needing encouragement can get that information on the schools’ websites. By sharing the financial aid amounts, which is what the HS is asking for, the only thing we are sharing is the extent of our need, and that is nobody’s business but ours and the college’s.</p>
<p>I agree that this is no one’s business, as far as your child’s graduation is concerned. However, MisterK has a point about informing others. That should be done through the college guidance office, which they probably already know about. Students applying in the future should definitely know about financial aid and the best place to do that is in the information-gathering and application process, not in disclosing individual personal situations. Congratulations, by the way! :)</p>
<p>It is absolutely your right not to share the information. I agree that in sharing specifics, it opens the door to your financial situations and to speculations. Also, you have stated that the school wants the information for PR reasons not for anonymous resource reasons. That makes it particularly noisome.</p>
<p>However, your last post does not quite ring true. By seeing what these schools have offered in comparison to each other, and with lots of other people giving the same information, some inferences can be made as to how generous they are. This actual data can be useful beyond what is available on websites. Until you see how the info on the websites is being done in practice, it often does not sink in. You find out a lot by knowing how individual schools meet aid.</p>
<p>I have helped with financial aid and been privy to a lot of packages and many things surprise me in actuality. If all of the schools that met your need well were consistent and geneorous, well and good. Sometimes you find out things like BC will use your qualified 401K and other such plan balances in their consideration, that certain schools may or may not be as need blind in admissions as they say or don’t say, that others give a lot of loans in their packages. Some include federal aid as part of their aid packages, some do not. Some do have private loans they give out to the students alone. Some will impute your income by your mortgage payment and adjust your FAFSA accordingly. You can get a lot of information by getting a person’s narrative of their fin aid experiences with various schools and the final awards given.</p>
<p>I actually saw with my own eyes, and would not have believed it otherwise that Colgate and a few other schools that give need only, they say, will give merit within need to the point of going into merit areas. That is truly a valuable thing to know. ONly by seeing the data, can you know this. </p>
<p>Two of my kids went to a private prep school that compiles every bit of data they can get on admissions, awards, both merit and finanial aid, and they put it all in a huge notebook that parents can peruse and get information specific to the school. The data is all verified and mixed into a 10 year period so that it is not easy to see who is whom, but, yes, being a small school, anonyminity is not kept after the fact. But just as many celebrity type folks divulge their phone numbers and addresses for school purposes, in a directory or other places, many of the families contribute to this information core, to help future students.</p>
<p>Yes, some don’t. And some of the ones who loudly honked that it was an invasion of privacy were the ones most aggressive in trying to get info when they were applying, and some were the noisiest in the bragging. Then they didn’t want to give up the info publicly.</p>
<p>Now, I absolutely do not think the fin aid awards should be blared out as public info or in the “braggin’ lists”, but absolutely the information can help counselors and anyone who is working with this sort of thing.</p>
<p>I’ll admit, I find the whole “privacy” thing wrt merit/scholarships a bit strange. If a school awards its own money in the form of a scholarship, they have no right to publicize (notify the high school, send a press release, whatever) because that somehow violates the recipient’s privacy by indicating he or she is a “high stats” student?</p>