Lying when you hold a public office is particularly loathsome.
I hope that her opponent in the next election brings this up.
I don’t really see a difference between money received at places like Harvard for need or particular achievement.
In fact, the internet reference dictionary defines scholarship as;
*a sum of money or other aid granted to a student, because of merit, need, etc., to pursue his or her studies. *
It’s often said that the achievement is gaining admission to Harvard in the first place.
Need based FA award is actually a scholarship. It’s reported on the 1098-T form as scholarship or grant. It’s not reported as “need based financial aid” on the IRS documents.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1098t.pdf
Anyone has the link about what the woman said?
Yes, a scholarship is a scholarship whether it’s merit or need-based. And yes, it is an achievement to gain admission to Harvard (that alone is worth “bragging rights”). However, I think the issue here is when someone brags about a scholarship to a need-based only school — this suggests that they either believe (or want others to believe) that it is based on merit (why would one brag about need?!) and therefore the student must be among the very best of those admitted.
Duel enrollment?? LOL - great typo!!
I’m a rising sophomore at Harvard who receives a full aid package, so hopefully I can shed some light on this.
Prior to starting my freshman and sophomore years at Harvard I’ve received an email and PDF from the financial aid office outlining my financial aid for the year. Each year I’ve qualified for the “Harvard Faculty Scholarship.” To someone that isn’t familiar with Harvard’s financial aid or my family’s financial standing, it could seem like I’m receiving a substantial merit scholarship. I know, however, that this is money is entirely due to my family’s financial need.
Additionally, Harvard awards financial aid on a year by year basis. So if that woman’s child got financial aid instead of a scholarship, they wouldn’t know if they would be qualified for the same award for the next three years as well.
Hope my experiences can help solve this.
But the woman, like you and my daughter (a recent Harvard grad who was also on financial aid), could assume that if their family’s income remains the same, Harvard was going to supply the equivalent need-based financial aid called “Harvard Faculty Scholarship” over the course of her child’s next three years of school. When people ask how my wife and I could afford to send our children to Harvard and Yale, I’ve often replied “We couldn’t have done it without financial aid. My kids received almost a full scholarship, making it cheaper than sending them to our state school.” I’m giving the woman the benefit of the doubt, and assuming she said the same thing.
Not everyone knows about college admission and financial aid terminologies and buzz words. Without knowing the exact wording and the context of what the woman said, we cannot judge her.
Other poor parents of the first generation college students probably say the same thing.
True, but the way the statement was worded so that it sounds as if it’s a guaranteed figure. Financial aid will change from year to year depending on need. I received more financial aid this year than last because of some circumstances around our financial situation, just as any changes to that family’s income would translate to changes in their package as well.
As a first-gen student, I understand the difficulty with college terminology, but it’s something that I put a lot of thought and research into to make myself fluent. I may be unfair with my judgement if others don’t focus on the wording as much as I do though.
Several years ago, a newspaper article mentioned a student had gotten a full-ride merit scholarship from [either Harvard or Yale, I don’t remember which]. I pointed out that [whichever school] didn’t award merit scholarships, in the context of wondering what else the article got wrong. Someone claiming to be the student showed up and clarified that she’d been awarded the merit scholarship by some closely-affiliated organization (I don’t think it was an alumni club, but something along those lines), and that it was only awarded to kids attending that school.