Non-academic scholarships-Yay or nay?
 

We go to college to LEARN. However, as we know, tuition can be a butt. So some students recieve scholarships to pay the expenses, of course.

Some common non-academic scholarships include sports, music/art, and ethnic/racial. Some less other non-academic scholarships I heard are scholarships for blonds, dyslexics, regional, parents occupation :rolleyes:, height, etc.

Do you believe it is right to give scholarships for non-academic reasons, eventhough college is an academic institution?

i may be biased on this, because i recieved a non academic scholarship.. it was for students with the rare bleeding disorder i have. it is genetically inherited, but most people merely carry the disorder, not express it as i do.. through the american hemophaliac society (which doesn't deal just with hemophalia) i recieved a scholarship to help pay for my first year of college expenses... this was paid for by people who have the disorder, adn wished to donate to help others with it...

The school wouldn't have an orchestra if it didn't pay non majors (like me) to play in it. I get a tuition waver that covers most everything every year. I think it's great because otherwise our music performance majors would have no orchestra to play in.

Non-academic scholarships can be good, I think. Hey, anything that helps counter the cost of tuition is good, right?

But what you've got to realize is, most scholarships (even non-academic ones) require you to maintain a certain GPA or meet other conditions, and if you don't, then you're up the creek. I used to be really biased towards people with athletic scholarships, mostly because the people I knew who had them didn't have to do nearly the amount of work to pass a class as the rest of us (they had to keep a good GPA to play, so profs were lenient with them). I was pretty darn jealous of my boyfriend, too, because he was on an athletic scholarship...until he got injured and couldn't play, and poof! there went his scholarship money. :mad: It was like the school just said, "Oh, well, you're no good to us anymore, so we're taking away your money." Not cool.

So I guess my point is that non-academic scholarships aren't just free money with no strings attached...you have to work to keep them, just like you do with an academic scholarship.

Oh I second that... I have to rehearse with the orchestra for around 9 hours per week... I have to go on trips with them. It is lots of time and energy.. I feel I earn my tuition waver.

If I ever have a kid they're going to need to be either 4.0 students, good musicians or incredible athletes. I don't want them to have to pay tuition either:D

I totally echo what ktsnake said about music scholarships. FSU has one of the top music programs in the country....and music scholarships/waivers were only given to music majors. In a sense it was an academic scholarship.....and there were a TON of strings attached. In addition you did have to maintain a specific GPA, which was in line with what was required to maintain the academic scholarships.

I fully support scholarships of any kind....be it for athletics, music, medical conditions, etc. Besides, many specialized scholarships come from private endowments so who am I to say who the recipients should be?

What's wrong with having scholarships related to parents' occupation? I know that there are schools which give scholarships to students whose parents are veterans, same goes for trashmen or people who work for a certain company. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, especially if the parent's company doesn't do tuition assistance (as some do). They aren't huge scholarships or anything--maybe $500, one-time? What's wrong with that?

I only received two scholarships--both for my performance with Academic Team/Quiz Bowl. One was for being captain of the County Champion Team, and the other was for being on the State Team. I'm supportive of non-academic scholarships because they allow students who go to schools like mine, where there are no academic/athletic scholarships and it's hard to get financial assistance, to cut down on their costs of education. Not everyone's at the top of their class, but still needs help in affording college.

Absolutely. My chapter hands out two checks each quarter that cover the cost of tuition for the two most-active brothers.

First, let me say...

1) I support non academic scholarships.
2) I have no problem, per se, with athletic scholarships.

However, I have a real problem with so called "highly selective" schools who claim to give "need only" scholarships.

For one thing, most of them aren't telling the truth. If they're NCAA Divison I schools, they are required to give a certain number of athletic scholarships in order to keep their NCAA status. That's not "need based."

Additionally, "need only" scholarships penalize the type of student that all colleges allegedly want if his/her parent fall into a certain income bracket.

Our son is a case in point. He was a National Merit Scholar, 4.3 weighted GPA, VP of his student body, active in the community, 1730 SAT and 34 ACT, with tons of extra curriculars. He won several national awards in music (and theatre) and presented a math paper for an audience of math professors and students from all over the country. (he was "perfect" in math on both standarized tests)

He was accepted at every college to which he applied.

Northwestern, one of his top choices offered $39, 000 per year in LOANS, with no scholarship money at all. Someone with a much lower GPA who was not nearly as active would have gotten a much better deal because of "need". It was pretty much the same at Yale, University of Cincinnati College Conservatory and the Boston Conservatory.

(Then we got mail from them wondering why he chose to go elsewhere!)

Thankfully, The University of Oklahoma recruits National Merit kids and gave him both academic and talent based scholarships which amount to pretty much a full ride. He didn't even apply there! But when he visited, he really liked it.

The kicker is that while I'm making reasonable money now (although still only about half of what I made before), I was out of work for over a year (corporate merger) and we used up all of our financial reserves and a lot of the college money we had put aside during that period. That didn't make a difference, though.

Finally, I'm not arguing against need based scholarships -- but against the schools who ONLY look at need.

It penalizes the kids who "do it right" in high school.

There should be BOTH.

End of rant.

Edited to mention that our local Delt Alumni Chapter underwrites scholarships for our two local chapters which are given to sophomore members who show leadership potential in their chapters.

How did your son get a 4.3 GPA and a 1730 SAT? I thought the highest one could get is a 4.0 GPA and 1600 on the SAT. Has that changed?

I dont know about the sat score, but at my high school advanced placement courses were weighted, so an A wasnt a 4.0, it was a 5.0, so if one were to take a few ap courses, theyre gpa could be higher than a 4.0

You are so lucky, Chopper! Thanks for the clarification. I took AP classes, and all I got was college credit. At my school, we had number grades like 95 not letters. The 4.0 GPA didn't apply to me until college not that I had a 4.0 GPA. ;)

:eek: WOW!!! That's very cool!!

SAT only goes to 1600...

gpa here goes to 4, but i have heard of it going to 4.5 or 5

Re: Non-academic scholarships-Yay or nay?
 

I fully support scholarships that aren't of an academic nature. College kids are poor and any help they can get, they should.

I had the chance at a sports related scholarship but I lost it due to an injury and because my parents make too much money, I'm not eligible for student loans, but I do manage to get small scholarships here and there.

When you think about it, college is an academic institution, but with college there are big college sporting events. These football, basketball, baseball, etc. teams give the students and faculty spirit, pride and all that. They can also make quite a bit of money on them. If the school wants that recognition and that revenue, it needs the athletes. I believe that some college athletes should get paid on top of the expenses that the school might cover.

Re: Re: Non-academic scholarships-Yay or nay?
 

No way! Getting that scholarship is payment. If college athletes get paid, then I want money too for having an above-average GPA.

Schools that look only at need do so because the VAST majority of applicants are already academically competitive, and would all qualify for merit-based scholarships. The Ivy League (which ARE NCAA Division I-AA) does not offer athletic scholarships because the mission is to support "amateurism in athletics" and to put academics first, and offering $40K packages to someone because they play football isn't supporting that mission. With that in mind, I have absolutely no problem with schools offering need-based packages ONLY. If someone who's in the middle is willing to work/take out loans in order to go to Harvard/Yale/Princeton...go for it.

Oh yeah...ANYONE can take out student loans. It doesn't matter income...but public schools can't offer federal loans to students who don't qualify for financial aid, but can offer federal or private loans to their parents.

Sorry, I need to proof-read. The 1700 was a typo. His SAT was 1530. (800 math/730 whatever the other half is)

And the "weighted" grade is exactly as Chopper described. In his high school AP and Honors courses were on basically a 5 point scale. (A=5, B=4, etc.) Non AP and Honors courses were graded on a normal 4.0 scale.

Having said that, it would probably not be possible to achieve a "perfect" 5.0, because not every course in the school had "weighted" grading.

There was, for instance, no Honors or AP Phys. Ed or Health. Most elective courses were not Honors or AP, so the highest you could get on those was 4.0 -- although there was an AP Music Theory class.

The highest GPA that I'm aware of in his class was a 4.5 or so, which was received by one of his best friends, and she is now at Harvard. Fortunately, she is from a very wealthy family. (Her SAT was just the opposite of our sons, 800 is it verbal?/730 math)

I think they were both AP Commended Scholars, although she (amazingly) made it in her Junior year. She got dispensation and took two AP courses as a Freshman, and a total of twelve during her four years. She attended an alternative, self learning, K-8 school. She is amazing and drop dead georgous. We told her we will attend the ceremony when she receives her concurrent Nobel Prizes.

Every course she and our son took (except the electives) were either Honors or AP -- and that was tough. The Honors program at their school won a national award from the US Department of Education the year they graduated.

Some colleges don't accept "weighted" grades, but I think most do.

I have to go w/the pro-non academic monies :)

In high school, my grades were so-so so due to the fact I really didn't care, but, when it came up to crunch time (ya know..when I actually started caring) it was too late. Thankfully, I received a Music Performance Scholorship for 2 instruments and I -have- to keep my GPA up and go to every freakin' little performance no matter what. So now, a good chunk of my education is paid for each year. Also, when I get out of school I won't have to pay back any loans..ick..

Correct. However that doesn't change the fact that students who don't achieve as highly in high school, but are from less prosperous families will be given larger grants.

Also, I think (that's an important word, I'm not offering this as a proven fact -- just experiential learning) that most students in smaller colleges are given aid of some kind, no matter what the parents income level is.

Again, I'm not arguing against need based aid -- I'm all for it. I just feel pretty strongly that there should be BOTH -- otherwise, as I said above, the really high achievers are penalized by university policy.

I suspect that "need only" aid has more to do with Political Correctness than being fair to all students. In the end, though, it comes down to a subtle discrimination against outstanding middle class students. Kids from poor families will receive "need only" aid, and those from wealthy families don't really need it. The kids in the middle get nailed by accident of birth.