<p>A few months ago I posted about how I was disappointed that my son, who wound up being Valedictorian of a class of 470 was pretty much shut out at our local scholarship night. Many of his classmates walked away with anywhere from $3000 to $7000 dollars (renewable at that) who were not the athlete or scholar he was. Community service on their part, nothing. I caught a lot of grief, and yes, rightfully so for sounding like a whiner. There were two or three scholarships, that based on the criteria, he was a lock for and got none.
Fast forward to the middle of August, I saw the head of the local service club who was in charge of the scholarships for his organization. His parents were at my wedding and I have been doing business with him for over 23 years. I mentioned that I was pretty shocked at their selection. He asked me why my son never applied for their scholarships and he was a lock for two of their biggest ones. I said he did. So did many of this friends who were top 15 students in his class. When I asked if they applied, they all said yes, but never got an interview. The reality of what happened. Only 22 applications were submitted for 21 scholarships. These scholarships are based on merit, not need. They usually have 60-70 applications. Between the counselor at the high school and one person at the service club, there were only two adults who were supposed to handle the applications before turning them over to my friend who interviews every applicant. As my friend told me, it looks like most of the best candidates were culled out. He has children at the high school and he knows who the best candidates are. He was disappointed by the candidates they had this year, since he felt they gave away money to undeserving kids. He is trying to safeguard against this happening again. As for me, it is all water under the bridge now. I would like the counselor to know that somehow, something went wrong. However, I am afraid of raising a stink with my younger son still at the high school. I am not sure what really happened and feel kind of disgusted.
My suggestion is that you keep track of all your applications and make sure they get to where they should. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors.</p>