<p>Eh, I don’t check things to win arguments so much as to share (or correct) information. Hi, future librarian over here.</p>
<p>Stupid party over in this corner, welcome; as was said in Jaws, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat” :)</p>
<p>^ Keil, Slith was referring to Fallen’s jibes, not your attempts to further this thread.</p>
<p>Sorry, I’m trying to skim over the arguing in this thread and thus am not the most conscientious about tracking post “directions.”</p>
<p>Kei - thank you for sharing and correcting the information floating around here and on other threads. You have done an especially outstanding job with regard to National Merit scholarships. And yes, I agree, there is a lot of misinformation that pops up on these forums.</p>
<p>Tokenadult has referenced this article multiple times on multiple threads. I don’t think he has popped in yet on this discussion so I will share if for him:
[The</a> Best Class Money Can Buy - The Atlantic (November 2005)](<a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-leveraging]The”>The Best Class Money Can Buy - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>I recommend all parents (and students) read it if you haven’t seen it before. From the article, for example:</p>
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<p>The key paragraph, I think, is this one:
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<p>Wow Greta! If colleges are this sophisticated in how they dangle the carrots of their merit/FA awards, makes me feel all the more strongly that these colleges must DISCLOSE merit/FA interaction upfront. </p>
<p>Kinda creepy – this is the first time I’ve ever thought there was an advantage to being no FAFSA, not having “enrollment manager” voyeurs creeping through my financials. I’m trying to remember if we gave any colleges our parent ssn’s in the app process …</p>
<p>great-that article just reiterates what i’ve always worried about…no matter how hard you work, if you don’t have the money you are screwed</p>
<p>Clueless</p>
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<p>Hmmm, would this be the PM where you said some nasty things to me?</p>
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<p>WOW - so now you are insulting everyone who works at K-12 schools? Really. The best one can do is a K-12 school ??? Besides your obvious lack of class, your assumptions continue to haunt you. As I said, where I work now says nothing about my background, where I worked previously, what my current responsibilities entail, etc.</p>
<p>See, I knew better than to wait for your mea culpa</p>
<p>rocket6louise</p>
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<p>I am glad you realize this. It is quite mature of you to admit this. While we haven’t necessarily agreed on this thread, I do commend you for recognizing your error and to me it suggests you will go far in whatever you do. Best of luck in your college process.</p>
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<p>Rocket, keep the faith: colleges can and do use these Orwellian powers to do good; you can look at enrollment management as trying to stretch as much aid as possible where needed.</p>
<p>I know both Smith and Scripps are in your sights: both are full-need, with excellent records for FA to high need students. You have a lot to offer, good luck.</p>
<p>berryberry-while I appreciate your well wishes, please do NOT quote me out of context. If you would have posted the whole quote, you would have seen the same point that I’ve been making the whole time. That yes-I should have checked the finaid policies, but the colleges do need to be more clear</p>
<p>here is my WHOLE POST</p>
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<p>once again…i thank you for your support, but don’t make it sound like I caved on my original position.</p>
<p>“great-that article just reiterates what i’ve always worried about…no matter how hard you work, if you don’t have the money you are screwed”</p>
<p>Yes, this is something we have to realize about our country. The whole “land of opportunity… social mobility” story that is told just generally no longer applies. And yes, you can yell and scream and say I’m wrong and the world IS fair that and people who work hard CAN change their circumstances and everybody knows somebody that this happened to but the truth is its a Cinderella story. They are very rare, think about it. How much money you have affects every opportunity you will ever have, including the resources you have access to when you’re young to set you up for higher education which will affect your earning ability for the rest of your life. Kids with the money at their disposal may not be any more cognitively gifted than a kid from the working/lower class but they can pay for private tutors, SAT prep classes and college admissions counselors that can help give them an edge. We all know that money makes the world go around and right now schools have to be frugal because of the economy. The truth is it has always worked this way, with something called social capital being the most important factor in how people obtain good jobs. Its just something we never saw out in the open before because it was done behind closed doors. Its the job interview you go on where they ask you nothing about your actual qualifications but rather how often you like to go sailing. Its the position you were more qualified for that someone else got because they knew somebody or their family had connections. Money breeds power and connections and they like to keep the circle small and the advantages exclusive. Unfortunately this is a reality we all must face in a practical way when going through something like the college admissions process. Just like everything else in life it isn’t fair. Its a process that tries to make you believe it is fair but in reality you find that the people making the decisions have a lot more to take into consideration than your deserving child’s great school record.
How do I know all this you say? Who am I to make all of these claims? I am part of the social sciences and I have learned how to look at life from a different perspective, analyze things that are not often noticed and look through the system for what it is. I think if you are honest with yourself and really take a look around you’ll see things for what they are (if you haven’t previously been aware of it). We can’t change the way things work, at least not in this capacity. I’m not speaking from an elitist, privileged point of view, but rather that of someone who is trying to better themselves and their circumstances and realizes exactly what I am up against. It IS possible, its just more difficult than most of us know, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try as hard as you can. To go back to my Cinderella metaphor, I’ll quote the wisdom of Walt Disney
“She believed in dreams, all right, but she also believed in doing something about them. When Prince Charming didn’t come along, she went over to the palace and got him.”</p>
<p>Colleges will (usually) look out for THEIR best interest first, secondarily students and alums, thirdly applicants. There are a few weird exceptions; for example, Swarthmore has been known to award its sole merit scholarship to Early Decision applicants.</p>
<p>Dingle, you again? I thought you were voted off the island (no room on our stupid people party boat for you).</p>
<p>I don’t typically run into school employees who bill themselves as business/investment dealmakers. They are quite proud of their superior talents in a field they are passionate about and I am fully respectful of their talents. So no insults to anyone other than you, dingle – you have more than earned your insults.</p>
<p>momma-three</p>
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<p>you sound like bloated big government - wanting to spend other people’s money for your own purpose. In other words what you are saying is if a family has scrimped and saved to save for college - they should be penalized if their child works hard to earn good grades and earn a merit scholarship because you want to take that merit scholarship away from them and give it to someone who hasn’t saved like they have</p>
<p>Popping the popcorn, pulling up a chair for dingle’s flame-throwing festival.</p>
<p>@ #409. Dingle, why do you insist on repeatedly harrassing this girl? She is not inviting your comments. You are behaving as a perverse, stalking creep.</p>
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<p>Is that weird? Several colleges I looked at clearly stated that they consider EDs on an equal basis for merit awards, citing track records of awarding merit to EDs.</p>
<p>regarding mrsref post- Your offense to my post is offensive to me. There are parents that want the very same thing for their kids that for any number of reasons they can not afford to provide. What would be the alternative to kids not receiving need based aid? Should those kids in the lower middle class/middle class not attend college? When I speak of wealthy people receiving merit aid I am speaking of those who can clearly pay full freight without the needs of life being impacted. The middle and lower middle class are doing without basic necessities of life to send their children to college even if they are receiving substantial need based aid.</p>
<p>The wealthy may have saved since their childs birth, to insure a college education for their child while the lower and middle class were trying to stay afloat. Most people that have achieved a certain level of wealth are reasonable in their perception that life has been very good to them in many ways. If you disagree with me that is fine, but to say that you are offended that I do not believe that merit aid should be given to the wealthy than I am offended that you do not realize that college is not just for the rich.</p>
<p>glowworm—If you read what I stated the key word is “wealthy” and I stand by what I said. If someone is wealthy they should not receive merit money. If your daughter could not attend schools because money was an issue, than you are not the wealthy I am speaking about.</p>