<p>British English has an interesting vocabulary for this:</p>
<p>Scholarship - competitive, merit, no consideration of need, no repayment.</p>
<p>Bursary - need based or with strings attached.</p>
<p>For example I got a “bursary” because it obliged 2 years of service to a specified employer after graduation.</p>
<p>D is struggling with what to list for her HS Senior night. She was offered several merit scholarships, but is going to a need-only university. She was awarded three different scholarships there, University Scholarship, Alumni Club Scholarship and one based on community service, but in order to qualify, you must show need. Her HS is not clear on what scholarships will be recognized, so I think she will end up listing at least one of these. I think she deserves some recognition since she definitely qualified for merit scholarships at several similary-ranked schools.</p>
<p>If you must show need, they are not scholarships.</p>
<p>I sense in some (not all) posts a kind of resentment that some receive grant/scholarships based on need.</p>
<p>I don’t know why, but it really, really bugs me when people say that got a “scholarship” from a need-only school</p>
<p>I don’t know why either- since a scholarship just translates as financial support.</p>
<p>Need only schools generally assume that all accepted students meet the same academic bar and financial aid should be saved for those who actually couldn’t attend without it, although I can see why some students who received merit awards to entice them into attending slightly lower ranked schools could be irritated.</p>
<p>Objective789, on many need based financial award letters, the grants are referred to as scholarships. That doesn’t imply merit. It simply implies that it need not be paid back.</p>
<p>By the way, there are also scholarships that are a mix of need and merit. I have a kid who got one of those.</p>
<p>re post #63 - for you Objective - a dictionary definition of “scholarship”</p>
<p>“a sum of money or other aid granted to a student, because of merit, need, etc., to pursue his or her studies.”</p>
<p>Showing financial need does not preclude a student from receiving a “scholarship”.</p>
<p>I also have another kid who went to an Ivy League school that offers NO merit aid. Her need based award came with a X University Scholarship, which is the portion that doesn’t have to be paid back. I just checked that school’s site and it gives sample award letters and uses “scholarship” as part of the package.</p>
<p>No resentment at all. Just be honest about what it is that you received. A SCHOLARship clearly denotes an award received because of merit. Need-based aid is just that. They do not equate. </p>
<p>I think it is great that need-based aid exists. It is a wonderful “socialist” policy that allows deserving students to attend schools they might otherwise not be able to afford. Yes, that’s correct, need-based financial aid is clearly a “socialist” concept. People who received it should remember that the next time they find themselves ready to complain about something others are receiving.</p>
<p>This post is not intended as sarcasm in the slightest. Just pointing out a truth that many people conveniently avoid recognizing. Anyone who accepts need-based college aid and opposes need-based healthcare aid is a hypocrite.</p>
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<p>I agree that this is how the majority of everyday people think about it. Money to pay for college. Whether it’s need-based or merit-based or athletic simply isn’t a distinction they are making. No one means any ill when they say that their neighbor’s kid “got a full scholarship to Harvard,” so let it go.</p>
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<p>Sure the first set of kids “earned” it. They were deemed worthy of admission to the given school and therefore worthy of whatever financial aid was necessary to attend. </p>
<p>I think it makes people look very, very small to correct their neighbors on this type of thing. It’s almost like – you want to <em>ensure</em> that Johnny’s family gets taken down a peg by ensuring that everyone knows that Johnny’s money is because he couldn’t afford Harvard on his own versus Harvard thought he was so super-duper-special they gave him extra money. Really, what harm is it to anyone else if the neighbors think Johnny won a full scholarship that was actually just Johnny’s FA? Either way, Johnny’s getting to go where he wants and it’s all good.</p>
<p>Objective…why do you assume that a person who gets need based aid tries to make it sound like it was based on merit? I surely never tell anyone that is so. For my kid who went to an Ivy, I would readily state that my kid got a good financial aid package that included scholarships that helped with the cost. Indeed need based grants are ALSO called scholarships. It doesn’t imply they are for merit. I know they are not and would never try to mislead anyone. </p>
<p>My other kid got a substantial scholarship and I called and asked her school what that was based on and they said it was merit based but that the amount awarded figured in need. Gee, what am I allowed to tell people? It is a mix. Do I have to spell it out to others? Simply stated, I would say that her scholarship helped us to afford her college.</p>
<p>*I think it is great that need-based aid exists. It is a wonderful “socialist” policy that allows deserving students to attend schools they might otherwise not be able to afford. *</p>
<p>I agree- whether a scholarship is based on merit and not need, to entice students to attend a school where they wouldn’t qualify for aid otherwise, or whether * all* admissions are based on similar level of standing and scholarships are reserved for needy students- they accomplish the same goal and that is to construct a balanced student body.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t see what the problem is. I’ve always considered anything that doesn’t have to be paid back a “scholarship.” It may be need-based, but they didn’t have to accept you - but they did, and then they chose to pay for it. That sounds like a scholarship to me. I think the problem here is really the animosity of the middle and upper income groups against lower income students. Those groups tend to think that their students “earned” financial aid (which is what any merit scholarship is, after all) while low income students did not “earn” them in the same sense, but instead were merely “given” them. That’s not true, but alas, one of the many misconceptions between classes.</p>
<p>I have never heard “full ride” to mean anything other than tuition, room, and board (I don’t consider personal expenses - they are PERSONAL, after all).</p>
<p>I’m still not getting why calling need-based aid “scholarships” irks some people, especially if the college calls them scholarships.</p>
<p>Obective789: "I think it is great that need-based aid exists. It is a wonderful “socialist” policy that allows deserving students to attend schools they might otherwise not be able to afford. Yes, that’s correct, need-based financial aid is clearly a “socialist” concept. People who received it should remember that the next time they find themselves ready to complain about something others are receiving.</p>
<p>“This post is not intended as sarcasm in the slightest. Just pointing out a truth that many people conveniently avoid recognizing. Anyone who accepts need-based college aid and opposes need-based healthcare aid is a hypocrite.”</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more. But there are a lot of hypocrites in this world. Kind of like Ron Paul disparaging the government while he’s using Medicare for himself. Now our current President has taken the middle man (banks) out of the way, enabling student loans to come straight from the government. Let’s see how many anti-Obama, anti-government, so called conservative or libertarian parents turn down those “socialist” low interest student loans.</p>
<p>They are upset because they have the Pedant’s Lament: “they keep on using the wrong word.”</p>
<p>I am on the Board of a community music school, and when we discussed our financial aid policies 2 people on the Board continually interrupted our policy deliberations to remind everyone that a scholarship is not need based.</p>
<p>I said that for our discussions we were using the word “scholarship” as a synonym for “aid.” That precipitated an enlivened discussion about definitions of terms, with the “scholarship” crowd insisting that that word simply may NOT be uded for any but a merit award.</p>
<p>That’s why we now talk about “merit” aid and “need-based” aid.</p>
<p>So, OP, rather than “combustulate” when you hear that word misused, just realize that many people use that word to indicate “aid.” Yes, they are incorrect . . . but - really - you know what they mean: “my kid got financial aid.”</p>
<p>I’m shocked to read about upper-income people resenting need-based scholarships. </p>
<p>By extension, would the opposite be true? </p>
<p>If an upper-income student accepts a merit scholarship even though he can afford to be full pay does that make low-income students resentful?</p>
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<p>That’s what I get from the tone of this thread too.</p>
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<p>They would have had to outperform their local peer group with more difficult circumstances. Colleges do look for that.</p>
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<p>It may be the class warfare thing but some people wince at the use of inaccurate language in their own knowledge domains by others.</p>
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<p>I have run into that.</p>