<p>Do scholarships/aid have to be claimed on your income taxes? If so, does the IRS differentiate between need based and non need based?</p>
<p>All scholarship monies over the cost of tuition and books are reported to the IRS. It does not matter if it is need or merit based.</p>
<p>Isn’t that something, explaining to the IRS, where is the money suppose to come from to pay the taxes, when you got full financial aid (sounds like an oxymoron).</p>
<p>Again, I question what the common connotation of “scholarship” is, NOT the dictionary definition! In every place I’ve lived, “scholarship” and “full ride” imply merit aid. Perhaps it’s different in the East, or Midwest, I don’t know.</p>
<p>And again, I wonder why someone can’t just say, “I got really good financial aid” or “It’s affordable” or “They were generous” or even nothing at all.</p>
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<p>As somebody else posted, most people outside of CC don’t know the difference. I remember a month or two ago I saw an episode of Oprah (might have been a repeat) about a homeless girl from skid row in Los Angeles that got accepted to Harvard. At the end of the show Oprah announced very dramatically that the girl not only was going to be attending Harvard, but that she got a FULL scholarship! There were many gasps and ooo’s and ah’s from the audience, and it was pretty apparent that the majority of the audience was under the impression that it was for merit.</p>
<p>And I wonder why people can’t just take the dictionary meaning and move on. Do you correct people if they brag they are driving a Ferraro by pointing out that that car is about 20 years old with holes and dents?</p>
<p>My son applied for a half-dozen local scholarships. They were for students showing community service, academic excellence, and financial need. I had to submit the FAFSA SAR or a copy of my Federal tax form. </p>
<p>Yep, just checked again, they were called “Scholarships”. This fits the Random House Dictionary definition but not the definition of those who would limit the word “scholarship” to merit only.</p>
<p>Here on CC we tend to obsess about the college application process, financial aid, etc etc and parse nearly every word that’s written in dozens of different ways. The rest of the world just isn’t that interested. Let’s give people the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>GA2012: how could you tell what the audience was thinking…?? maybe they were happy that a homeless person was getting the aid that she’d definitely need in order to attend the school…</p>
<p>i saw that episode of oprah as well, and my first thought wasn’t about the type of aid she received, but whether she was adequately academically prepared for harvard. i think she went to a low-performing high school in the l.a. area. i also saw another episode of oprah where she discussed the vast disparity in high school preparation. she had students from the same city swap schools for a day–the kids from the lower end of the income spectrum experienced classes at a school in an affluent neighborhood and vice versa. it was heartbreaking to witness the reactions of the inner city students when they realized just how inadequate their preparation for college truly was. so when i saw the girl from los angeles, i thought of that. the last thing on my mind was whether her aid was need or merit-based!</p>
<p>I understand the different viewpoints on when to use the term scholarship. For me personally I would appreciate if the folks on CC would specifically refer to merit or FA because I am seeking schools with merit aid for S2.</p>
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<p>In my opinion the audience was gasping about what an extraordinary thing Harvard is doing. They are providing a full scholarship for someone who has lived in the type of poverty that most of us can only imagine. Now she will have the same educational opportunity as the Kennedys. It’s inspirational.</p>
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<p>calamami brings up an excellent point, these kids can have trouble adjusting, not just academically but socially. They will be rubbing elbows with kids from very wealthy families and it can be a tough transition. Harvard tries to provide them with as much help as they can, they have an office that discretely keeps track of the really underprivileged kids. Some of these kids can’t even afford a winter coat and it is the job of this office to find out what they need and fill in the gaps.</p>
<p>Yes, merit and FA are concise, unambiguous terms, therefore preferrable. Scholarship is ambiguous at best, but nothing to get upset about; we have more worthy problems, like finding the money! :)</p>
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And where did anyone make that assumption?</p>
<p>Nobody said that the funds will a) come from a single source or b) that it will be easy.</p>
<p>It’s one thing for a family to make a choice not to go the expensive route. Another to whine about the unfairness of it.</p>
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<p>Calimami, some of the kids in the worst schools have a clue as to how much they’re being short-changed. Maybe not a good picture, but a sense of. Some of the worst face-into-brick-wall experiences come from students in schools a notch up, where students get 4.0’s and it’s not obvious how mediocre their preparation is…and then they hit college and find themselves both outgunned and underprepared…it’s a great shock.</p>
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<p>Of course I don’t know exactly what the audience was thinking. The way I took their reaction stems from reactions from friends, my D’s high school teachers, and even GC and other administration. Our local paper did an article on her for being a Questbridge Match and Gates Scholar, and the heading had the words “200 thousand dollar scholarship.” Lots of comments were made very emphatically that my D must be “so smart” to receive that, to which I would say that everyone that gets into her school is smart, and the funds were given for economic need. Of course they were still happy for her, but my impression after telling them this was that the accomplishment was diminished if she didn’t get it because she was smarter than others, which is silly of course. I didn’t take offense when they would just say “oh,” after telling them this, but that is the way I interpreted it. </p>
<p>Pea, I agree what that girl accomplished given her circumstances was absolutely amazing!</p>
<p>At some schools, there is no clear difference between merit and need-based scholarships. For example:</p>
<p>Willamettes financial aid process is merit-driven. The quality of a students academic record influences the amount of scholarship and grant money that is included in his or her financial aid award. Source: [How</a> We Award Scholarships and Financial Aid - Tuition & Financial Aid - Office of Admission - College of Liberal Arts - Willamette University](<a href=“http://www.willamette.edu/admission/tuition/aid/how_award/]How”>http://www.willamette.edu/admission/tuition/aid/how_award/)</p>
<p>Ursinus awards financial assistance based both on merit and on financial circumstances. Source: [Financial</a> Aid - Student Services - Ursinus College](<a href=“http://www.ursinus.edu/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=457]Financial”>http://www.ursinus.edu/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=457)</p>
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<p>You are WAY overthinking the amount of attention the average person devotes to this. Really, I’m sure they weren’t thinking, “Hm, well, there’s financial aid that is need-based and financial aid that is merit-based, and if this girl got a full-ride to Harvard, it must be merit-based; why, she must be even smarter than the average bear headed to Harvard.” They thought “isn’t that great, a girl from this background gets to go to Harvard.” Whether the source of the funding is Harvard itself, whether Harvard’s policies are need-only or include merit (I know they don’t), or even from some outside scholarship source is irrelevant. They would exclaim just as loudly if Oprah said she was giving the girl a full ride to Harvard out of her own checkbook.</p>
<p>There are several definitions of scholarship, one being: financial aid provided to a student on the basis of academic merit. Others reference any aid at all. The word itself is ambiguous and without knowing the context we can’t know the meaning in any particular situation.</p>
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<p>I appreciate your honesty, but I think in situations like this, people are just making small talk, and “we’re very proud of her, thank you!” is sufficient response. I don’t think you need to point out that it’s need and not merit to just accept the compliment for what it is.</p>
<p>Maybe a more agreeable way to describe the monetary funding for colleges would be to refer to what students receive as financial packages.</p>
<p>Son’s package at an ivy that offers “no merit” was a combination of many different types of aid. Federal grants, federal work study, student summer contribution, institutional aid labeled “scholarships” and outside scholarships both merit only and merit with need basis.</p>
<p>His institutional monies came each year with paperwork explaining his endowed scholarship and why that particular scholarship had been assigned to him. Sometimes the families or organizations wish to meet or correspond with the student. My son was most touched by the one he was awarded freshman-junior year (3 year endowment)- was also awarded others but this one meant so much to him and the donors.</p>
<p>They were allowed to designate him amongst other students, his profile reviewed and then the family asked to meet with him. The award was in the name of a fallen soldier who was an alum grad and the family set the scholarship up years before, it was in son’s profile that he came from a long-line of military members and had a hard time deciding between matriculated school and West Point. The scholarship had not been awarded in many decades.</p>
<p>Affected son and endowing family both made a difference. Was this just need-based, was it just merit? Didn’t matter to son, just that someone else would be following and caring about his career. His outside merit-only scholarships did not affect him in such a way, yet one need-based one counts on him to mentor and bring others who would benefit from their “scholarship” to their attention.</p>
<p>So if I were to say son attends ivy on scholarship funds that would be true, if I say he is receiving grants that would also be true. He was awarded workstudy however after his outside monies came in they were to replace that and summer contribution. But his workstudy job needed him and kept him working so money changed again. He had EIGHT revisions of his “FA package” in one year. Money was carried over from the academic year into the summer which paid tuition at a completely different school.</p>
<p>I think explaining this to an audience or in a news article or to the general public would be difficult. I think if the student and family do their homework they will realize how much more complex this can be. Throw in D1 athletes and is gets even more perplexing. It took 4 long years of high school to get to application season; time should be put into researching the financial aid process while they are still in high school.</p>
<p>For us the FA was more complicated than getting in!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>What families can and are willing to pay as we all know is variable by family. Just because you are seemingly “able” on paper to pay for a private college at a particular moment in time doesn’t mean you “should pay” or “could pay.” This is what went very wrong with the housing market. Some people “stepped up” their houses because the banks said they were able when maybe they shouldn’t have or really couldn’t have given their individual situation. The family makes the decision based on their own set of personal factors and comfort level. It’s just like investing and people have different risk tolerances.</p>
<p>I haven’t read this whole thread, but my kid gets need-based aid from a college that only offers need-based aid, and the school calls that aid a “scholarship.” Right there on his FA award and on his bills: “[Name of College] Scholarship.”</p>
<p>So, regarding the original post, people may just be using the language the college itself uses.</p>
<p>Kat - What a wonderful story about your son and the family providing the endowment. Sure sounds like a wonderful “scholarship” to me.</p>
<p>TheDad - It’s always difficult to interpret tone on a thread. I guess I was feeling sensitive and underrepresented.</p>