<p>I received a letter about a program on race, gender, and class, which sounded good. Then I was reading through and saw that it said this: ". . . because you have identified yourself as Asian/Pacific Islander, African American, Native American, Hispanic/Latino, or multi-racial person . . ." The thing is, I'm white and am afraid that either me or the college made a mistake. I checked my submitted commonapp application and saw that I did put white/caucasian, and then checked the Swarthmore college supplement. Pretty sure I didn't put anything other than caucasian. I'm just afraid that the college gave me my quasi-merit based scholarship possibly based on a race that I'm not.</p>
<p>All I can think of is that because of my socioeconomic status, I fit the class part of this program.</p>
<p>I know the best thing is probably to call the college but hopefully someone here can help me out. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I wouldn't call the college and I wouldn't give it a moment's thought. Here's why:</p>
<p>a) Once you get to Swarthmore, nobody is going to care one iota what boxes you checked, your soc-ec status is, your SAT scores, your scholarship package. All that stuff becomes a distant memory.</p>
<p>b) They probably didn't make a mistake in awarding your scholarship. But, if they did, they are never going to admit it or change anything. Save everyone the potential embarrassment! Just enjoy the your Swarthmore experience and don't waste any time on the "whys and wherefores" of how it all came to be.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>This program on race, class, gender. Is it Tri-Co? The Tri-College Summer Institute on Race, Class, and Gender? Because if it is, they send that out to the entire freshman class. After the courts made various rulings on the legality of affirmative action, Swat decided to open Tri-Co, typically a week-long freshman workshop on you guessed it - race, class, gender - before orientation starts, to the entire freshman class instead of just minority students. They probably just sent you a letter meant for a minority applicant instead of the main generic one.</p></li>
<li><p>Which Quasi-merit based scholarship? Except for McCabe and Evans, they are no official merit scholarships, and even the second is technically need-oriented. Honestly, you probably 'deserve' the scholarship regardless of your race...</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There is also the little advertised "Swarthmore Scholars" program. This gives the finanicial aid office some flexibility to enter bidding wars for (mostly) URM applicants.</p>
<p>I got the same letter, the one telling me I was mixed race or something like that. My friend read it and goes "eh, it's probably just 'cause you're jewish"...so that's what I'm telling myself, haha.</p>
<p>It is a discretionary scholarship fund proposed by then Dean of Admissions Robin Marmlet before she went to Stanford and approved by the Board of Managers (I think in 1999, but the Phoenix archives are down). It provides funding to convert loans to grants and otherwise offer sweet scholarship deals to targeted students.</p>
<p>The number and amounts vary from year to year and I've never seen any published guidelines, or even many references to the scholarship funds. The program falls into the "quasi-merit aid category", similar to the Questbridge scholarships, etc. </p>
<p>There was some noise about the program when it was first implemented, because it does run somewhat counter to a pure need-based aid philosophy. However, the reality is that colleges need to be able to respond to bidding situations from time to time. I'm not aware of a college that doesn't do so.</p>
<p>The Tri-Co program.. if you apply.. are you guarenteed to go? .. is it a first-come-first-served deal? or do you have to wait to be accepted? Because if the letter was sent to all incoming freshmen and as the letter specifies, each college is allowed 30 people.. how does that work? Does anyone have some information they can share? Thanks.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to Tri-Co last year. She was put on a waiting list. At some point during the summer, she was accepted. Since the application requires essays, I thought they hand-picked the participants rather than allowing them in on a first-come basis, but that's just a guess on my part.</p>