Quote:
Originally Posted by GeorgiaGreek
Take the National Merit Scholarship. You have to score in the top 1 percent of high school seniors in your state to get the scholarship. And yet the scholarship amounts given for two of the main public institutions in Georgia are $500 and $750 a year. On the scale of total tuition and housing costs, that is NOTHING. That is books for the year, maybe not even the entire cost of them. So students who have demonstrated potential for achievement, even though they may be able to afford the cost, get rewarded very little for it.
I'm not saying that need-based scholarships aren't important or necessary, but there are very few scholarships for those who JUST earn it and don't necessarily REQUIRE it to get through school. That's doesn't seem right to me.
|
Since Georgia already offers a full tuition scholarship to qualified students, why would they offer National Merit money to kids who already qualify for HOPE?
Other states, which don't have lottery money or merit scholarship programs, offer much better deals for those who did really well on the PSAT/NMSQT.
I am conflicted about women/minority scholarships. I went to a college that awards financial aid based solely on need. It's a numbers thing and there's nothing unfair about that. I went to a tiny high school, however, and all of the kids of color applied for certain scholarships. Despite being in the top 1% of my class (and probably the top-ranked student of color), I didn't receive any of the scholarships...the kids who did, however, didn't finish college.
Would it have been better to just give the scholarship to the person who was the most qualified academically, or the person who needed it the most on a financial level just to GO to college (and not necessarily to graduate)?
I probably would have graduated from college anyway, Ladies of Essence/American Association of Business Women/Florida Architects Assembly scholarship or no. But, would those people who ended up getting those scholarships even ATTENDED college without them?