<p>My daughter got a letter today from her college, congratulating her for a scholarship that she is receiving for this year, and requesting her attendance at the annual dinner for scholarship recipients and donors, so that she can thank the donors in person.</p>
<p>In the middle of the letter it states, "please note, this is not an additional financial aid award". She already has an 80% tuition discount for all four years of her undergrad (she's in her 4th year) and a federal grant of $22K for this year and next (the two years she's in the professional stage of her 5 year program). So they will just reduce the amount she's getting already from one scholarship fund and take it from the other..... pretty clever of them to honor someone that will save the school money. Too bad they didn't give it to someone that actually needs the help.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to try, to see if they’d give it to someone who needs the money. But on the other hand, since we don’t know what money this would have provided, and turning it down might not get back the money they reduced from her 80% merit scholarship, I don’t want to take the chance.</p>
<p>We also got a bill from the blood lab today for $458 worth of titres that she needed in order to do her clinical work in pediatrics, which insurance won’t cover because it’s not considered medically necessary, but is a school and state medical board necessity. Right after she had the blood drawn the school offered a $55 plan for the rest of the students who hadn’t gotten them done yet. I don’t think the school will be getting any donations from me when they start calling in October!</p>
<p>Often there are funds that are earmarked for specific categories of students because of the way the money was initially given to the college. If your daughter didn’t fall into that particular category, the money might not even be available for anyone this year.</p>
<p>Back in the day, I was the only person in my department on financial aid, so my aid package always read “Famous Alum Memorial Scholarship in X” because Famous Alum had left a boatload of money for a need-based scholarship in that department. If there had been no one in the department on aid, the financial aid office would have had to stretch the boundaries of the interpretation of just exactly what X meant, possibly extending the money to a student in a related subject area, or a student who minored in X. If I had ever been told that it was my duty to turn up at a dinner because of that particular named scholarship, I would have been more than happy to trade my regularly scheduled food service meal for the almost certainly finer dining offered by the scholarship committee!</p>
<p>I understand KKmama’s frustration that this is money that might possibly have been given to another student, since her d is already at the max…my daughter is on her 7th revised award letter, as she is astoundingly fortunate to be fully funded through a variety of awards. One of the awards (she competed for this one) is the full ride, but the school reduced this based the congolomeration of other awards she received. When we asked the school about it, their answer was that she could not receive more than 100% COA…and that’s fine. </p>
<p>The way I see it, the awards, esp the competitive one, are funded by endowments, and if the reduction of the dollar amount allows more principal to be in the fund to keep it going for future kids, that’s a good thing. She is happy to attend the various donor dinners (in fact, we’re invited to one, too later this month at parent’s weekend) to express her appreciation for the consideration of each award, no matter how the office of scholarships keeps switching which pot pays what. </p>
<p>We had similar feelings when d was in the process of turning down scholarships at other schools as she was choosing her final university – she was worried that the funds would not go to another student. In one case, we know that a Fellowship was re-assigned to a student who was listed as an “alternate”…so figure it’s good scholarship karma…and the meals, meet and greets, etc are opportunities to practice gratefulness.</p>
<p>This appears to happen often. D1 was the recipient of a full tuition scholarship due to her NMF status. Her senior year she was told she had been awarded an endowed scholarship worth a few thousand dollars which was designated for a senior actively involved in one of the campus organizations. Yeahhhh!!! In actuality, the full tuition for NMF was reduced by the amount of the new scholarship. Oh. An honor but, for her, no monetary aspect to it. My sister, who is a financial aid officer at a different college, didn’t even have to hear all the details of my sad tale when I related the story to her. She knew where it was going and stated that it is a very common situation.</p>
<p>Wow, KKmama you really blew me away! If you can’t be happy and appreciative with an overwhelmingly generous package like that, then you might not ever be happy … what would it take??</p>
<p>They’re probably not saving the money, they are likely giving it to another student who needs the funding. If your daughter’s funding has not changed, what is the issue?</p>
<p>OP, it’s a good thing that earlier generations of parents didn’t have this attitude when they were donating the money that’s paying for your D’s education. Right?</p>
<p>I was frustrated that the school does not give the money to someone who needs it, instead of to my daughter. Surely someone else at the school is as qualified for the scholarship as she is. While the honor is nice to receive, she’d be a lot happier knowing one of her classmates is getting help. It isn’t that she isn’t getting more money - she doesn’t need it. </p>
<p>And yes, I am upset that the school did not offer everyone in the program the $55 rate for the bloodtests. They outright refused the tests to anyone that had health insurance. When my daughter told them that our (and others’) insurance would not pay because it is preventative rather than treatment for an existing illness, the response from her department (a medical program at that) was, “oh, we should have known that, I guess.” Hopefully they will fix this before next year’s incoming class. </p>
<p>Some of you may not have problems coming up with $458 for an unexpected expense like that. For me, it’s a full week’s gross income.</p>
<p>I NEVER said I was ungrateful. I HAVE said “too bad they didn’t give it to someone who actually needs the help”. I never said I wanted her to have more money. Quite the opposite of wanting entitlements, I have expressed the fact that the money should have gone to someone who needed the money, instead of giving it to her. I have said I did not want her to have the SCHOLARSHIP!!!</p>
<p>The problem is the school’s lack of generosity to someone who needed the money, not their lack of generosity to my kid!</p>
<p>KKmama… I agree with your fustrations, and I think you stated it properly. Get annoyed with other posters who feel you have no right to complain just because you have good aid. You never said you were ungrateful. Some people need to get off their high horse.</p>
<p>I NEVER said I was ungrateful. I HAVE said “too bad they didn’t give it to someone who actually needs the help”. I never said I wanted her to have more money. Quite the opposite of wanting entitlements, I have expressed the fact that the money should have gone to someone who needed the money, instead of giving it to her. I have said I did not want her to have the SCHOLARSHIP!!!</p>
<p>Again, you are assuming that someone else did not get the money. If the scholarship came with no extra money attached, it’s very likely that they simply gave your daughter money out of one pot that was inaccessible to other students, and then gave another student the money out of the general pot that her original money came from.</p>
<p>Example: Let’s say that originally your daughter has a $20K grant from the school.</p>
<p>Then Rich Donor comes along and gives an endowment that will award $4000 scholarships to students who can stand on one foot for longer than 10 minutes.</p>
<p>Your daughter falls into that group, so instead of giving her $20K - this year, the school gives her $16K and then gives her the $4000 scholarship in Rich Donor’s name.</p>
<p>The $4000 that the school now does not have to give her - because they found outside money to replace it - goes to another student!</p>
<p>I’d be willing to bet money that the money actually did go to another student who may or may not have been eligible for Rich Donor’s award.</p>