<p>FallGirl,
“To those who say it doesn’t matter, or this is meaningless: D was that top (#5/400) student who spent 4 years working hard, getting the VERY top grade in many classes”</p>
<p>-I said it does not matter, because Senior subject awards are useless. And yes, my own D. was the only one in her entire graduating class (only 33 kids though) with GPA=4.0uw. Since she was the only one, you can imagine how hard she had to work in each subject. She got plenty of Junior awards (very useful, some with scholarships attached, all included in her resume / application), NO Senior subject awards and she as you imagine graduated #1. Her HS does NOT rank, no Val. titile either. There is class profile on website and it was only one person with GPA=4.0, and that is how we knew that she was #1 which was also confirmed by her getting parents’ award. However, the only usefull awards were her #1 rank (our state gives lots of scholarships for #1 in every HS if they go to in-state) and her junior awards. But again, college GPA and including every single grade is much more important. Do not get too frustrated with HS, it is in a past anyway, cannot be changed.</p>
<p>I’m steeling myself for the upcoming scholarship night, which used to be held in conjunction with senior awards but now is a separate torturous evening. The main complaint I have about that event is a certain policy which can make it a little cruel for first-time parents. </p>
<p>All the available community and school-based scholarships are handled through the guidance dept. and applied for by a certain due date. The results are announced on that evening. These are awards like the town baseball or soccer club scholarships, the local Lion and Kiwanis club awards, and the various elementary school, middle school, and high school PTO scholarships. While these awards tend to have a political component, they are small enough monetary amounts that no one gets too bent out of shape unless one child gets too many.</p>
<p>But the problem for the uninitiated is that when you get the invitation to attend, you naturally assume your child has won one of the local awards s/he applied for. So you go, expectantly, and watch the scholarships be given one by one to other people’s kids. Then, when they’ve all been awarded and your child is left empty-handed, the principal re-announces previously awarded ones, such as the National Merit scholarships, or the athletic or band booster scholarships which were already announced at earlier, separate events. Then it hits you that that’s why you were invited–for the re-announcement. It’s not that folks aren’t grateful for those previously-earned awards, but that was NOT what they were expecting to receive. </p>
<p>D will likely get a booster club award this week at the athletic banquet, and so since I’d been through this already with my S, when I got the scholarship night invitation I told myself not to expect anything but a re-announcement of that.</p>
<p>D would have loved getting any Junior award (let alone plenty!) to put on her application. She got NONE.</p>
<p>I have noticed that the people who say “it doesn’t matter” are almost always people whose kids have been recognized at least at some point. Its a different perspective when your child works hard and excels and is NEVER recognized.</p>
<p>To clarify- anyone at our school with a gpa over 3.7 graduates with academic honors. In addition, one student is chosen to receive special honors in math, humanities, foreign language and arts. This year, someone was honored in humanities but did not graduate with academic distinction (or any other distinction) I find it somewhat disturbing that this student was honored in a paricular area when it is obvious that they did not exhibit scholarship across the board, enough to earn a 3.7 gpa. I’m sure there was a more deserving student in humanities with an overall 3.7 gpa (or greater!). It send a message- as long as you spend all your time focused on your favorite subject (and probably one you’re good at…), do enough to pass in other classes, you will be honored.</p>
<p>I wish D’s school did that. Nope. Everyone is expected to go, all Seniors and their Parents.
We have no choice… Even if your kid gets no award, you have to sit through the event, and smile & nod when the same few kids get all the academic awards…</p>
<p>(Probably more enjoyable if your kid is one of the ones getting the awards…;)…Not the case for us, unless they announce merit awards at the colleges of choice, which I really hope they don’t because that could take forever. :eek:)</p>
<p>On another note: D was presented the highest Band award at the last concert last week. In her case, we hope she does get recognized (“re-announced”) for that at the awards night. It was totally unexpected and quite an honor! …</p>
<p>As a teacher and a parent, I hate these award nights! Every year, I hear the award then the student’s name who won it. Usually I say to myself, “You gotta be kidding me.” It hit a high point for me last year when my son who was #2 in a class of 90, Senior Class President, the local tv’s scholar-athlete winner, and All-State in a major sport (and a recruited athlete who is presently playing a college sport) didn’t win one award. All this, while kids who had been suspended, arrested, or ineligible won numerous awards. I am sorry for venting, this topic brought back those wonderful memories. I can’t wait for next week’s award night, I have already told my daughter not to expect much. =)</p>
<p>^^^ Is it a private school, sokkermom? Trying to understand how a public school could enforce attending a ceremony for other people’s kids. Attendance at graduation isn’t even mandatory here, and each year several kids don’t go. We have invitations for Awards night, and the last two years our d was in school, she chose to go to her ballet class instead. Parents aren’t obligated to go to games or concerts (though most do, of course), so I just wonder what the carrot or stick is in your case. :)</p>
<p>I find that attitude disturbing. As I noted above, it is very plausible that a student could be very strong in humanities and struggle in math. My daughter certainly was one – she did have A’s in her math courses and a resulting GPA, but that’s only because she benefited from a liberal curve. If she had been in a different school or classroom, it might have been difficult for her to muster better than a B. </p>
<p>There are also students whose overall GPA’s are brought down by a weak freshman year – its hard to pull up a 3.0 to a 3.7, for example. Colleges are happy to see a “rising trend” on an application, and senior awards are probably based mostly on accomplishments for that year.</p>
<p>Our hs gives the local scholarships (booster clubs, businesses and charitable/civic groups) at the same ceremony as the academic awards. It takes over 2 hours, and you’re only invited if you’re getting something. The ceremony was held last week.</p>
<p>On the plus side, for once it didn’t seem like the same 3 or 4 kids got everything. With 400 seniors, about 200 were at the awards ceremony and only a few got more than 2 awards, and those few were pretty deserving (Val, Sal, etc).</p>
<p>That said, there were some very strange outcomes. We have ONE student from our hs going to Harvard, he is the Sr Class VP and a contributing member of a State Championship varsity team. He wasn’t even there, because he didn’t receive a single award or scholarship, and he had applied for a bunch of them (at least that’s what he told my D). Another top student who was the Student Council Treasurer only received one academic award, no scholarships. </p>
<p>My D applied for a dozen scholarships, many of which said they were based on not only academics, but community service and leadership. D is in the top 20% of her class, she’s the class treasurer, co-captain of 2 varsity teams, a Freshman Mentor, and a Peer Leader. She’s done a bunch of community service thru our church, Relay for Life, etc. She wrote what I thought were good essays for all these scholarships, but she didn’t get a single one. Nor did she get any of the ones that were selected by the school administration, despite 2 vice-principals going out of their way to tell me what a wonderful student and what a great young lady she is. I didn’t expect her to get all the scholarships, but I figured she’d get at least one! The only one she got was the booster club scholarship that every graduating member of her sports team gets.</p>
<p>Many of the scholarships that are given out here are based on having a relative in the civic/charitable group, or playing a certain sport.</p>
<p>BTW, the exact reverse of something I’ve seen complained about on CC in the past may have happened to my D.</p>
<p>I’ve seen people complain that the PTA board’s kids get all the scholarships.</p>
<p>I’ve been on the PTA board for 7 years (2 kids) and have been President for 3 years. Our PTA gives a scholarship, but we don’t pick the student ourselves - we send the criteria for the scholarship to the administration and let them choose the student. When I sent in the criteria to the office, I included a note reminding them that my D and the PTA VP’s D were ineligible for this award, since it would just look wrong if they got it even though we weren’t the ones choosing the recipient. </p>
<p>In the end, my D didn’t get ANY scholarships (other than the one every graduating member on her sports team got from the boosters). I wonder if the administration took my note a little too much to heart. </p>
<p>At any rate, being the PTA President’s D clearly didn’t help my D at all, and may have even hurt her (we’ll never know).</p>
<p>I knew my S would get no awards beyond an athletic award for crew, he just graduated from BS so I didn’t know most of the kids well, however the kids who did recieve awards were cheered enthusiastically by their classmates, I can only guess the awards were justified. The Val seemed to have the biggest “haul”. She seems pretty amazing, highest scholarship, a top baketball recruit and my son and his roommate say, “a really nice girl”. The other person who recieved several awards is according to my son one of the most admired kids in the class. The “jerkier” kids came away empty handed. The kids seemed satisfied so I am happy!</p>
<p>Keep in mind that a lot of community based scholarships have a need component, whether it is expressly stated or not. Harvard also has a well-deserved reputation for being very generous with need based aid, so the perception could very well be that there were others who applied who were far more needy. If you are on a scholarship committee and have to vote as to who to give your $250 or $1000 or $2500 to – there’s a tendency to look seriously at perceived “need”. The Harvard kid? or the kid from the low-income family who is the first to go to college and clearly can’t even afford to attend the state flagship without extra help?</p>
<p>Also – I noted when my kids were in school that 90%+ of community based scholarships seemed to strongly favor community service. After all, many of those scholarships are funded by service organizations (Lion’s Club, etc.) The Harvard-bound kid might have been far too busy with his academically oriented EC’s to have much time for that.</p>
<p>We too found that many community based scholarships have a need component which was not expressly stated. Another trend here is that community service which was performed within the activities of a school or community organization seemed more likely be recognized on awards night than significant community service done via a student’s religious affiliation. I do not know why. With a large graduationg class of 400 in the example stated above, there are 80 students in the top 20% f the class and I’m sure many with significant EC’s. Even if a student applies for 12 scholarships, it seems that the most likely result is to not win any.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a private school and Catholic at that. In fact, the awards ceremony is held after the baccalaureate “mass”…ugh! It makes it even longer. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>They hold this on Friday night, and the Graduation is Sunday. I am not sure if they take attendance now that you mention it. It may just be peer pressure, I don’t know. (maybe it is the Catholic guilt?) :)</p>
<p>The kids (class of about 165) have to go on Friday night, and they were told they have to sit with their families. I suppose the school could not allow them to graduate with the rest of the class if they don’t attend the Friday night thing. ??? I guess we just assumed we would all go and suffer.:eek:</p>
<p>I am getting texts from the athletic awards night. Good thing I didn’t go because I’d be fuming there even more than I am now from home. A girl who never took a single AP class and isn’t even in NHS just got scholar-athlete. Wow, and that’s the ONLY one I was pretty sure D would get since she’s been recruited to play at Stanford, Harvard, and the other Ivies, she’s a National Merit scholar, etc. But no. Oh, and a bowler got the award for most athletic. No offense to bowlers, but really? You overlook our state champion gymnast (she got nothing) and similar caliber athletes and you just recognize the bowler?</p>
<p>Yes, Harvard’s generous FA could be a reason that our only Harvard kid got blanked at awards. I should also add that this is an extremely competitive class, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that things got spread around. Still, even D noticed that it seemed that other than Val and Sal, the top 10 kids got very little - but the somewhat-lower-but-still-decent-students took home a lot. Almost like there’s a feeling AGAINST giving the awards to the very top kids - perhaps because people assume they will get everything anyway. I know when we were designating the criteria for the PTA scholarship, there was a feeling among the membership that the top students will get a lot of scholarships, so they wanted to give it to a kid who worked really hard but didn’t end up at the very top (ie probably someone more like their own kids). I think there’s a tendency to do that with the civic group awards, as well. GFG, maybe that’s what’s at work right now at your school.</p>
<p>Our town doesn’t have a lot of truly low-income kids who are the first to go to college. (I know who the lowest income kids are, because I work for the schools and coordinate the Free & Reduced Price Lunch Program). Only one or two of our F&R kids got awards, but only 8% of our district qualifies for F&R so that wasn’t unexpected.</p>
<p>Like many towns, we have an All Night Party on Grad night. There is an awesome raffle early in the morning and great prizes are given out. One of them is a 1000 dollar scholarship. It is given randomly by drawing a name of the party attendees out of a hat. It may very well be one of the few scholarships that is fairly given!</p>
Even if your kid gets no award, you have to sit through the event, and smile & nod when the same few kids get all the academic awards…</p>
…</p>