<p>What I have seen is that when the applications are being filed, many families will give up anything and everything to nearly anyone to get an edge on getting into selective schools and getting the money. Once they have it all, it’s a whole story different story. There is a reason the Pied Piper story is a classic.</p>
<p>Also, there are many braggarts out there who love giving out the story in the bits they want people to know but then when it comes to giving out info officially, they back off and cite privacy. </p>
<p>For those who have quietly completed their forms and kept their financial aid awards private, there is absolutely no reason to share the info except in a private matter with those they choose to do so. It can help future students for GCs to know the experience as all info is given out on averages and when it is applied to a particular school, situation, student, it is particularly useful. But to just have it as bragging rights, I would not give out that info. I also wouldn’t be telling other folks about the awards and would tell my kids to keep the info private too.</p>
<p>Your high school wants information that will help them justify their budget for counselling and rigorous courses for the top students. By all means, do not help them do this.</p>
<p>I was thinking of “privacy” from the perspective of the school, too. My employer gives out a limited number of full tuition scholarships in a competative process. You can darn well bet they want the names of the award recipients in the local paper, in the kids’ graduation/awards program, etc. When students agree to take a school’s money, I don’t see how they, as recipients, can say “but don’t tell anyone because that’s private”.</p>
<p>Ordinarlives, I don’t think the issue is making merit awards public, but making need based financial aid awards public. The latter can potentially make a family’s income public.</p>
<p>I think divulging merit award info is useless because the circumstances of receiving it are so obvious. Announcing that Johnny Valedictorian received a full-ride merit scholarship to Mediocre State U is a “duh” moment, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Bay…I think the question of whether to divulge this type of info depends on what exactly the HS is asking for. If they want to know specific amounts, or awards given by schools the student doesn’t plan on attending…I think that’s inappropriate.</p>
<p>But if they’re asking for scholarships (in name only) from the university the student has chosen to attend I don’t see that as a violation of privacy. Furthermore, since there is any number of celebrations, recognitions, assemblies, parades, et al for every little athletic achievement these days, I have ABSOLUTELY no problem with giving public recognition to high performing academic students.</p>
<p>In my mind, NOT recognizing these kids publicly (as long as common sense is used) for all the hard work they’ve put in would constitute a “duh” moment…regardless of whether you consider their chosen school to be “mediocre” or not. Careful…your bias may be showing.</p>
<p>Without the student’s/familiy’s permission, that is absolutely correct. For example, college X offers a Presidential Scholarship to everyone who scores above a 32 on the ACT. By making the scholly public without permission, the HS is in fact publicizing a student’s test score, which is a private matter since the student’s test scores are NOT property of the school. Such publication is a no-no under FERPA (and California state law). </p>
<p>OTOH, many private sponsors of scholarships request permission to publish the results on the application. Thus, permission is received when the student applies. Of course, it requires parental permission if the student is under 18 at the time of signature.</p>
<p>If I were a conscientious guidance counselor, I would work with my students to get them into college. I think I would do so, given who I am, the way I am and my interests and knowledge. A student who needs financial aid would get my best efforts in terms of applying to the best options. Would I ask for the results? Sure I would. Would I want them to post them to everyone? No. I would want them to help future students. </p>
<p>In such a scenario, I think that giving back means sharing the info, and yes, the original letters are needed because you really can’t trust anyone these days and have to go with source documents. And yes, I would want to see all of the offers, not just the one from the school that is where the students are going. No, the student/parent does not have to share them, but it would be the right thing to do under the circumstances. Some things are just the right thing to do.</p>
<p>In the OP’s case, it appears that the school wants the info for PR purposes, and no, I would not share ANY financial aid data in that case. I’d also tell my kid to keep his mouth shut about those awards. If I didn’t want to officially have these things listed, I would not be sharing the info all over the place either.</p>
<p>But all that is just my opinion. The OP or anyone can do what they danged well please. The school is very unlikely to have consequences for not giving the original papers for perusal and not sharing any information including where the kid was accepted, WL and rejected.</p>
<p>Slithey, it is. It make Naviance look ever so anemic. But there are privacy issues. If someone really wanted the info, it is possible to identify the kids, being this is not a big school and word gets around. The notebook can only be perused in the office and no copies or photos of the data allowed. It appears not to have been abused, but the potential is there.</p>
<p>You are right that what I wrote may have come across offensively. That was not my intent. I was basing it off how our public h.s. announces these things: At graduation, when all of the high-performing students are thoroughly recognized on stage, with special seating for the top kids, special garb and special notations in the program. Its not like no one knows that Johnny Valedictorian isn’t an amazing student at this point.</p>
<p>In my experience (which could be misinformed), the kids who attend their reach colleges rarely receive merits awards at those colleges. It is the high performing students (and we already know who they are) who are planning to attend a safety school who usually receive the full-ride merit scholarship.</p>
<p>At our graduation ceremony, the principal announced multiple Johnny and Jenny Valedictorians who received full-ride merit to X safety college, but then announced that they will be attending Y reach college. It just seemed silly to me.</p>
<p>Bay…I agree with you there. I don’t see the value in announcing scholarships that the student isn’t going to be accepting, nor do I see the need to collect or announce specific amounts. To me that seems like bragging and could be misleading…neither of which I’d be a fan of. But I do like the idea of announcing where the students will be attending and listing their scholarship accomplishments. No one will know (unless they look it up on the university’s website) what the $$ amount is and the students get recognized.</p>
<p>I apologize for misconstruing your comment. When in doubt…I quickly resort to sarcasm.</p>
<p>Our local school district publishes the total amount of “scholarship money” awarded with no distinction between need based and merit, so it is essentially worthless anyway.</p>
<p>D was awarded a very nice regional scholarship based on academic achievement and community service. School refused to recognize her for it at their “Awards Night” because it was not in the scholarship booklet given out to the seniors. However, they included the amount when they published their brag. Had I but known that this would happen I would not have told them the amount she won.</p>
<p>A child from my HS received a “full scholarship” to MIT which was announced to all the family during weekly announcements and disclosed during the award ceremonies. Most don’t know that MIT does not give merit scholarships, so I see little harm. People make assumptions about finances all the time anyway. D refused disclose her financial need award called a “scholarship” for her college which left, I’m sure, people assuming we could afford her expensive need-met private.</p>
<p>As a student, I find that this is not a huge problem. I am a senior and my school asks for our scholarships that we are awarded, more for the school we are going to and from outside resources. Scholarships that we will use. On Awards Day, when parents come in, they’ll be congratulating us. In fact, outside the front office is a huge sign with the name of all last year’s seniors that received scholarships and the approximate total amount. This could be considered bragging, but it just made me hopeful. The idea that almost everyone of the previous class received an actual scholarship helped me. So that is my personal prejudice.</p>
<p>Also, I feel as though some schools might be taking the awarding a little too far. It is better to rely on actual scholarships and not grants that are awarded to the student from the school that they will be attending. I suppose my school does it in a slightly different way from some of the other posters here. Overall, there is a choice in what you allow them to mention(at least, at my school). I talked to my counselor and made sure that she only counted my merit awards, which are far less than my need based awards.</p>