<p>Again, in our state neither my son or us had to do anything. It was all completed by the school and he only needed to sign it. Not sure about other states.</p>
<p>Wait… a while ago (I dont remember how long, maybe a few months) I filled out some scantron-like thing with my info and stuff… I think it was an application for this. So I should not be expecting this award now for sure? Damn that stinks</p>
<p>this isnt ok at all. i was a byrd winner and i am entering my sophmore year. I filled out my renewal in february and they said they would send the check in august. There is nothing said about availability of funds so I really hope i still get it. If i dont im going to lose it. This award was literally the only thing that was keeping me from bashing the federal government on a daily basis. Now that they have taken this away the federal government is really screwing me over. I mean common i pay taxes. Shouldnt i get some of the benifits?40 millions dollars. I bet they spend more than that on fancy toilet paper for the pentagon. Grrr soo angry. I hate taxes soo much and this award was the only thing keeping me from losing it. Not happy not happy at all. Thinking bout moving to the caymans. Not happy grrrrr. Angry angry angry aaaaaaaaaa</p>
<p>Vermont’s application required 2 essays and a letter of recommendation, in addition to an official transcript and form filled out by a school official including test scores, class rank, etc. If the government had to de-fund the program, it would have been nice if they’d done it in time to save kids the effort of writing essays and assembling a great number of items to apply. :-P</p>
<p>there is some kind of delay in passing a budget this year through Congress, so there are probably a lot of these little programs in similar situations (ie no one knows if they’re staying or going so no one is sending out notices).</p>
<p>As for nomination, there are some scholarships that only allowed the high school to nominate one student. I believe it’s UVA, we had several top students who were applying for nomination by the high school for a scholarship to that college. As only one student was nominated, the other students either didn’t apply or didn’t pursue their application to UVA.</p>
<p>As for the Byrd, more than one student was allowed to apply per high school. As stated before, my son and another boy received the award from his all boy high school, but in looking at the listing of our state’s awards, some schools had multiple winners. I know others applied as well, as at least one valedictorian was named an alternate to the Byrd, and his mom was plenty mad that the two boys, who were not valedictorians, received the scholarship over my son. Her son had plenty, plenty scholarships and college offers to choose from, so it wasn’t a case where a more qualified student was denied the scholarship. In fact, my son and the other winner were very involved in a diverse number of activities at school, many of them service oriented, whereas the other applicant who was an alternate was more the student athlete, superstar type. This is why I really liked the Byrd. It gave a chance for the good, civic minded students to receive recognition finally.</p>
<p>LOL lanceb! try to hold on, it’ll be alright! the caymans are pretty though… haha</p>
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<p>Yeah, I heard that the local universiy is amazing. One of the best! Oops, wait … they spell it George Town over there.</p>
<p>Just another example of government cutting spending on education and helping students…sounds like they need to get their priorities back in order</p>
<p>Not sure how far into the process the various states got, but we’re in Michigan and they never even bothered to award any Byrd scholarships this year since the funding was cut. D1 was nominated by her school (no other application/essays/etc.) but wasn’t aware of it until they announced it on Senior Awards Night. I contacted the state scholarship office and was told they never chose any winners this year because of the funding issue. Guess that means no chance of receiving funds down the road if funding ever gets reinstated.</p>
<p>Vermont never chose winners either, but the application process was involved, and S did go though that. I think I mentioned earlier that Byrd was the <em>only</em> state-level scholarship that S was even eligible to apply for.</p>
<p>We need to do more to support and encourage the students who are working hard and committed to learning. If more of a media uproar were created perhaps successful business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals, celebrities, and others who benefitted from solid educational opportunities would contribute to keep the scholarship going.</p>
<p>Where are our priorities?</p>
<p>just got email…there will be no funding for current recipients either in alabama… so S2 got one year…did help with books etc.</p>
<p>I realize this is highly unlikely but what happens in the funds are reinstated next year? Is the class of 2011 just “out of luck?” Our high school spreads this type of opportunity among its top students and this was the one my D was selected to compete for be since the HS felt she had the best chance to receive it. Now the program is gone…lost not only this chance but also the chance to participate in another strictly merit based scholarship program. Quite disappointing on this end.</p>
<p>casey1,</p>
<p>I posed this very question to our state rep and am awaiting a response. I too was wondering what happens if the program funding is reinstated next year or the year after to those students who would have been eligible this year.</p>
<p>I don’t know about all states but what I was told is the nominations for 2011 would be held for the as long as necessary in case the funding was reinstated. If that happened they would award the scholarships to those who would have earned them this year.</p>
<p>Friends, please keep in mind that political comments or discussions are not appropriate; results of congress’ decisions as they pertain to colleges are okay.</p>
<p>-moderator vonlost</p>
<p>As a parent, I am very disappointed that this program went unfunded.</p>
<p>Are you serious? I don’t think I was going to apply for that scholarship anyway, but that’s not right. Too bad Senator Byrd isn’t here to fight to get the scholarship funds back.</p>
<p>I believe the odds of getting the program refunded at the Federal level are zero. The emphasis is upon finding new cuts, not backtracking on cuts that the President and Congress already agreed upon.</p>
<p>There may be a chance that an individual state or two might be convinced to start their own merit program to make up the difference.</p>