<p>and bragging. At least in my neck of the woods, and most certainly in my extended family. It is confusing, though. I spent a good couple months explaining the different kinds of aid colleges offer, before my kids and wife were quite clear on the differences, and could ferret them out of college websites and stories.</p>
<p>As Pea cites from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the naked, unadorned, and unmodified word “scholarship” can mean any “a grant-in-aid to a student” that may (or may not) be based on anything in particular. But in fact, many people—particularly students with excellent stats and parents of students with excellent stats—typically don’t think of this distinction: They identify “scholarship” and “merit scholarship” as being equivalent and the adjective “merit” as unneeded.</p>
<p>So the confusion (and frustration and anger) is created when Student A (or his/her parents) talk about his/her great “scholarship,” which is a need-based “grant”, but Student B interprets the word “scholarship” as a “merit award,” and then thinks to his/herself: My stats are better than A’s, so I’ll get a scholarship that is at least as big as A’s is! And such a student reading the language that Pea cites from Harvard: “Over the past decade we have increased our scholarship aid by 155%, …” can wistfully misread that “scholarship aid” as including merit aid as well as need-based aid.</p>
<p>So I don’t think cringing is needed when a student or parent says “scholarship” when they mean “need-based grant,” but I do think the colleges, the guidance councilors, and college guides could try to make the distinction clearer by never using the word “scholarship” without a modifier----“need-based scholarship” and “merit scholarship” would be my choices.</p>
<p>Yes, but in the common vernacular, “scholarship” is implied as “merit scholarship.”</p>
<p>Not always! I taught at a college where there were a number of endowed scholarships whose selection criteria included financial need and some other criteria–ethnicity, musical talent, particular major, geographic origin, etc. Therefore, these scholarships were awarded to students who qualified for need based aid, but met one of these other criteria as well.</p>
<p>Actually from the above posts I think you can say in the common vernacular a scholarship can include FA. On CC people who breathe this can see the differences in shades of meaning.</p>
<p>Actually I think the schools (at least the ones that offer merit) use them interchangably to an extent as well. I am in the unfortunate/fortunate situation of having an EFC approximately equal to the annual COA at a private institution. Two years ago when my daughter was applying to schools, I dutifully filled in all the financial aid forms as I believed the “you never know unless you submit” line I heard everywhere. Other than unsubsidized loans, we were not awarded a penny of need based aid, but, out of the 7 mid-level LAC’s where she was accepted, 4 of them offered her merit aid ranging from $11-14k/year. All of these were unsolicited scholarships, i.e. the automatic type that we, in our ignorance, didn’t even know existed.</p>
<p>This year my son applied - now our EFC is divided in half as I have two kids in school for the next two years. Again, I submitted all the financial aid forms, fully expecting need based aid for two years but hoping for a merit component that would help offset the last two years of my son’s education. Although my son’s stats are better than my daughter’s, and he applied to similar schools, only one of his acceptances came with a significant merit component. However, 4 of them came with “scholarships” - need based grant funds, in excess of $20k/year.</p>
<p>I have little doubt that the “merit” my daughter received was a discount we were offered because we just barely missed the cut for need based aid - if our EFC were much higher, or we hadn’t submitted FA applications, we might not have gotten any of those offers. I also have no doubt that the reason there was no merit component in most of my son’s packages was because we were eligible for significant grants based on our FA application, so the “automatic merit” type awards were saved for more marginal cases.</p>
<p>"Yes, but in the common vernacular, “scholarship” is implied as “merit scholarship.”</p>
<p>I think that’s mostly true in the rarified air here on CC.</p>
<p>“Scholarships” to many people means money awarded due to being poor.</p>
<p>A very wealthy parent (lives in a mansion, gives their kids expensive, brand-new cars when they get their drivers’ licenses, etc.) was complaining that the top schools only give need-based aid, and how unfair it was. I told her that I was very grateful that they do, because for some of us, that’s the only way our child could possibly go there. She knew my D was a top student, but didn’t realize her family was not wealthy. I think that surprised her because she assumed all the top students at our high school were from wealthy families. Actually, most are.</p>
<p>I usually use the vocabulary that my D received “very generous financial aid” that allows her to attend a top school. Despite that, an acquaintance urged her D to apply to the same school, and was admitted, but then was dismayed that her financial aid wasn’t as generous.</p>
<p>Back in the 70’s we heard two types of comments. “I got a nice financial aid package for college” and “I got a college scholarship” The latter always inferred a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>hahah i feel the same way.
for national honors society this year, we had to put all the colleges to which we had been accepted and our corresponding scholarships, not FINAID packages. well a lot of people just went ahead and put “43,000 to Columbia,” or “full ride to RPI” when they were all just grants, not scholarships. that annoyed me a lot!!</p>
<p>I don’t care about it, except for one time. A man bragged that his D got into Williams with $30K scholarship and, in his so many words, not that she’s a Hispanic but an excellent student. This is a “wilful” bragging: He’s right that Williams doesn’t offer ethnic scholarship, he surely knows they don’t offer merit either.</p>
<p>I call all non-loan financial aid scholarships. I have enough to keep track of without talking about how University of So-and-So gave me $XXXX in scholarships, oh wait, maybe it was need-based aid, wait it was a grant, LET ME CHECK MY SPREADSHEET.</p>
<p>I disagree that “scholarship” is commonly understood to mean “merit scholarship.” I don’t know anyone who uses it that way–except on CC, of course. ;)</p>
<p>I don’t see why this is bothersome. In my view, in need based aid, the word “scholarship” is used interchangeably with “grant,” in other words, money that is not paid back. There are two kinds of scholarships, need based and merit based. A financial aid package from a college that only uses need based aid and offers no merit aid is understood by those in the know and that describing a scholarship from such a school implies that it was a need based grant. I tend to use “scholarship” more than grant as well. Even some colleges’ need based FA packages use the word “scholarship” for the grant part of the package.</p>
<p>I heard the exact opposite kind of story on our local news a few weeks back. A young man had been the first from his low performing school to be accepted at West Point. There was a fundraiser held to pay for his air fare. The concluding line in the story was that he would be able to get to NY, but the family had no idea how they were going to pay for his four years once there.</p>
<p>One of my sons who attend Cornell receives some financial aid. He is employed by a business affiliated with the university and upon receiving our statement the words -----Scholarship totaling over $9,000 was clearly printed on our statement. Apparently the company that employs him paid him in part through a scholarship. These opportunities are available at top schools. He works very hard at this job while attending classes. However I don’t think entering freshman are getting scholarships at need based schools.</p>
<p>This thread reminds me of the grandparents who say how proud they are that their grandson has gotten a football scholarship to Xxxx (a D III school). Just smile and say “Congratulations!”</p>
<p>Just yesterday, someone mentioned that they knew someone who received an athletic scholarship at Dartmouth. I just shrugged and said, “that’s great”… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Many (non-cc obsessed) people actually believe that ivy and D-III schools give athletic scholarships. They don’t.</p>
<p>I’ve never given this a moment’s thought. I must say, that I interpret any money given by the school to the student that doesn’t need to be paid back as a scholarship. I suppose this comes from my college years decades ago, if your family couldn’t afford the entire cost, a student might get a “scholarship.” But I also always thought there was a merit component to it…that the organization granting the scholarship or the college granting the scholarship felt there was “merit” is assisting that student to attend…so on the surface I guess I do not differentiate “need” vs. “merit” and see them in tandem.</p>
<p>I had a roommate whose parents had a “bigger” house than mine and she traveled farther distance. She had a “scholarship.” I just assumed her parents didn’t have as much money as mine…not that she was “smarter” than I or “better” than I. I don’t think times have changed all that much…the elite LACs still award scholarships to those they want that “need” help to attend. </p>
<p>Parents whose kids receive scholarships should be congratulated because the colleges clearly “wanted” their kids and made it possible for them to attend.</p>
<p>Oops - I think I am guilty of this. But in my defense, S1’s financial aid award letter from Wake does list “scholarship” as the biggest component of his pkg. I have had numerous people ask me something along the lines of, how are we affording such an expensive school, and I’ll reply that he has a generous scholarship. It’s kind of a nosy question to begin with, but I am more comfortable just saying he has a scholarship, than saying he has a good FA pkg. Not meaning to mislead anyone, just providing the least invasive answer.</p>
<p>Also - my understanding is that there is some consideration of the student’s qualifications in determining FA. It is called preferential packaging - where the higher stats student gets the better pkg. Not everyone with the same EFC at the same college gets the same pkg, right? So, while it is based on financial need, I have been under the impresion that his stats play some role in his being awarded a generous FA pkg.</p>
<p>But I do think OP has a valid point - I would not want to hear someone bragging about their scholarship, when in fact they rcvd ned-based FA.</p>
<p>I think the issue (which bothers me too) is that times have changed. When I was growing up, no one used the term financial aid… poorer kids got “scholarships,” probably mostly based on their finances and merit. These days, there is much more of a distinction between scholarships (merit) and financial aid (income-based) but some people don’t realize that and call everything a scholarship.</p>