<p>Sometime every summer, our local high schools list the scholarships that their graduating class received in our city’s newspaper. When my oldest was a hs freshman, I started saving these pages for research. At first I was amazed that someone got a $44,000 scholarships, but when I researched it, I realized it was $11,000 a year off of a $40,000 COA which was a learning experience for me. I also learned that most of the scholarships were only valid IF the student went to that college, another important fact I didn’t know. I learned the difference between national, local and college scholarships. This (and later CC) helped me point my oldest, S2 and now S3 to schools that we could afford. </p>
<p>When S2 was graduating last year, they had a senior assembly during the day (parents could come if they want) where students were recognized. If the student turned in scholarship information, it was printed in the program. I really enjoyed this and was almost in tears when my son was recognized by his peers with applause and whistles. Those seniors who were not involved in school and weren’t being recognized just didn’t come to it.</p>
<p>I personally feel only the scholarships that the student will “use” should be printed/announced. My big pet peeve is how a local private school advertises that their graduating class of 100 received over $3,000,000 in scholarships as a reason to go their school. After looking at their lists, usually only half received anything larger than $500, and about 30 received the rest of the money, usually in scholarships to colleges that they will not attend. I think this is very deceiving.</p>
<p>I find it amusing, but I don’t find it deceiving. Sure private colleges range from $40,000 to $60,000 and it’s fairly common knowledge that publics don’t give the same % discount per student as the privates, but I find it interesting to hear where the kids applied (as evidenced by those merit scholarships). The only thing that makes me wince is when they announce a ‘scholarship’ from an Ivy that really doesn’t give scholarships…but then again I ‘get it’ and the lines have blurred concerning the word “scholarship.” Back in the day in the early 70s when I was going through the college thing scholarship WAS financial aid and scholarship “students” were those that needed financial aid…so call it merit or call it scholarship I choose not to parse the differences and be happy for ANY family that can get a discounted college education for their student.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a ceremony like that at our school.
There is usually a whole page ad in the local paper on the graduation day that lists all the graduates and the school they will be attending. Then in the program the val and sal are indicated by the stars next to their names. The speeches are done by audition but from what I have heard they usually go the the kids involved in student government (rightly so) and to the students whose parents fought really hard to earn their kids the spot (plainly stupid to write your kids’s grad speech).
But our school does something way cooler. The principal send kids personal notes, by mail, when they have accomplished something significant for the school. It is really, really nice to get this piece of mailing Way better than recognition night…</p>
<p>kelowna, a few teachers do that in our high school and I’ve “saved” those precious notes. The principal does it also, but it’s the teacher ones I treasure. The principal notes are generally related to the GPA and the ‘report card’, but the teacher notes are random and recount little things I of which I have no knowledge.</p>
<p>My son’s public high school has a senior awards ceremony at night. You are invited if you receive an award. My son told me tonight that he is getting an award. You only find out what the award is at the ceremony. From what I understand, you have to be nominated/selected by teachers and coaches and you can only get one award. No student gets multiple awards.</p>
<p>Yes, I am happy to go to an award ceremony for my son. Although I agree about the numb bum syndrome, I’ll be the one clapping, cheering and crying. I am proud of my son and all he has accomplished under very difficult circumstances. I am just as happy for all the other kids who have received incredible scholarships/awards. My son has a friend who received a four year full ride scholarship. I did the happy dance with his mom. Why wouldn’t you want to celebrate your children’s achievements?</p>
<p>Kelowna, what a nice tradition that the principal sends notes when student’s achieve. Would love to have our principal do that, but in S2 school there are 2500 students so wouldn’t expect it. S1 and now S3 go to a school with 400 students, and its amazing what the principal does for all of them (he spends SO MUCH OF HIS MONEY). He also will write a recommendation for every senior who asks, and has helped my oldest find an internship. I do think the amount of kids in a class makes a difference. </p>
<p>I love to hear accomplishments of my kids friends and will glad do a happy dance for all of them.</p>
<p>^^our school is the same size, more than 2500 ! That is why those postcards, handwritten, are special. He does not send them for gpa and honor roll, he sends them for achievements that put our school in the news (perfect ACT score, winning a state or national tournament etc. ).</p>
<p>D3’s Senior Awards night is tonight. I’m excited. I hope she scored some local scholarships, but I know she’s got some honor cords coming. (3 I think).</p>
<p>They don’t tell you ahead of time which award(s) you’ve received. You get a letter in the mail inviting you to the event and letting you and your family know that you are to receive an honor/award. So if you already know you’re getting cords, or you have reported any University scholarships, you will have no idea if there’s something else or not.</p>
<p>glent95 (the OP): I understand and sympathize. My spouse would have revoked my “Grown Up Card” in similar circumstances, except that he had no moral standing to do it, since he had been disqualified for a “Grown Up Card” too! We were happy for the students who were recognized–and very happy for some of them–but there are a lot of things in play at such events. It takes a while to get over it, but from the “far side” of it all, I think you will look back and laugh about it all . . . eventually.</p>
<p>At my school’s award ceremony the seniors were encouraged to submit the scholarships from the institution they were to attend. My friends and I are flipping through the program waiting for the even to begin and sure enough you see students listed multiple times in the scholarship section. It’s not that I was jealous of them, it’s just that the whole point wa to show where you were going. Not how much money you racked up from schools you’re not even going to. Heck, I could’ve done that! But hey…what matter is where you’re going after high school. We noticed the kids who listed all their institutional scholarships were never listed in the program again. Perhaps they wanted their 15 minutes of fame. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>At my kid’s public HS academic awards ceremony, one year they made a big deal over the fact that certain of the local scholarship recipients were selected based upon “EXTREME financial need.” It is OK that it was a criteria, but I didn’t think they needed to publicize it.</p>
<p>I don’t think that the high school ceremony needs to announce any outside scholarship awards, unless they are extremely prestigious. Routine merit scholarships from a college do not need to be publicly announced, particularly from a school where the student is not even attending.</p>
<p>Our d’s hs asks the kids to list all scholarships they have received - from anywhere. They list these in the graduation program (without dollar amounts) and calculate the total $$ amount. Of course, this is a marketing tool. 90% of the student body received scholarship totaling 26 Million dollars for 170 students. Looks impressive! I, personally, enjoy looking at it and thought it was helpful last year when my daughter was starting her search. I think every kid should get their “5 minutes” of fame when they are graduating from hs - each parent should be proud if their child got merit money.</p>
I think it was a smart move to turn this information into a research tool. As silly as I think it is for a high school to list scholarships that students were offered by institutions they won’t attend, I can see why it would be helpful for parents/students from the same school system to have that information. “Hey - Johnny was offered XYZ at ABC U, and he also wants to be an engineer. Maybe we should check that school out.”</p>
<p>It does everyone a disservice to confuse need-based aid with merit aid, but that seems to be a distinction few people understand, on a first go-round at least. And, of course, there’s merit within need and need within merit. So parents and applicants should read carefully.</p>
<p>Need based. Confusing everyone at awards ceremonies since the beginning of time. At my awards ceremony there was a student that got tons of scholarships. After awhile we realized that these were in fact based on need. Not looking down on the student in any way, but I feel sometimes there’s a difference between merit and need. Not everyone can rack up that same amount of money if it’s determined on need.</p>
<p>I guess I better put on my big girl panties in preparation for tomorrow night’s ceremony. This will be our one and only time to attend so I have no idea what it is like at our hs.</p>
<p>The main reason why a college would collect information on scholarships from a college that a student is not attending is so they can use it in marketing materials. I’ve seen some Catholic Schools brag in advertisements - our students were offered over “x million in college scholarships.” Of course, that would be deceiving if 5 different colleges offered the same $10,000 aid to the same student.</p>
<p>Posts like these are why I love reading College Confidential - too funny! Of course I hate to admit that I felt the same way glent 95 (at our HS they list all of these awards in the Grad program) but in the end it was gratifying to see the pride on the faces of the many parents and other relatives of these students with long lists of awards…</p>
Way better than recognition night…</p>