Reporting all scholarships to the high school

[DawnM]

Our school likes to keep data on all scholarships offered to all students.  I get it, it is a brag thing, "Our students received over $1M in scholarships for the 2018 school year" kind of deal.

It just seems disingenuous.  Maybe I am over thinking it.

My son applied to 3 state schools and one private school.  He received a lot more from the private college he isn't going to.  Had he applied to all the "free application" private schools, he potentially would have gotten a HUGE amount of merit scholarships on paper, but not in hand.  But because he didn't, the scholarship offers are fewer.

I wish they would say something like, "Our students will be using XXX amount of scholarship money towards state colleges and XXX amount of scholarship towards private colleges" and not include the amounts they aren't even using.

But I know no one else calculates it that way, so I get it.  Does it bother anyone else?  

[8filltheheart]

It makes no sense at all. Kids attending schools like HYPSM will have $0 in scholarship $$ bc none is offered.  It is one of those things that makes no sense to people who understand the process but is used as a marketing sound bite.

[teachermom2834]

It is annoying. My oldest ds had very close to a million in scholarships but it really isn't that impressive. He applied to ten schools, most private and overpriced to start with, and got what looks like lots of money on paper. He didn't get any free rides or anything close. 

But it is totally a brag thing. And silly. 

[Hoggirl]

2 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

It makes no sense at all. Kids attending schools like HYPSM will have $0 in scholarship $$ bc none is offered.  It is one of those things that makes no sense to people who understand the process but is used as a marketing sound bite.

This bugs the heck out of me!  

How do y’all think this compares to a list of “accepted schools” put out by a high school?  Ds’s high school alma mater does this.  He was accepted to nine schools of various selectivity.  Every school that every graduate was admitted to was listed in the graduation program, but of course, they each only attend one.  

[RootAnn]

I think it would be better if it was worded, "offered" so much in scholarships - and the more straight forward schools could follow up with an "accepted" dollar amount. 

That would be more honest.

[JennyD]

I was recently looking at the website of a nearby private school and they listed college acceptances and offered scholarship amounts for each graduating student.  I was appalled. To me, it seems horribly invasive of the students' privacy.  

[plansrme]

I just got the email for this from my daughter's GC office, and YES, it bugs me to no end.  The best part of this was that they want me to attach proof of the offer.  Ummm, what, exactly, is in this for me that would persuade me to pull up and copy any written evidence?  Nothing.  And since the school had almost nothing to do with the offers she received, I am even less likely to want to help them with their PR stunt.  I deleted the email even though, technically, my daughter will be accepting scholarships worth $140K over four years, and she was offered more by schools to which she didn't even apply.  The $140K, even alone, is pretty laughably deceptive.  

[catz]

Absolutely meaningless number game.   Often merit is need informed anyway.  

[Mabelen]

At my kids' high school I take it as a form of celebrating student achievement. I think for the high achieving kids, the celebration is wearing the big name school shirt, getting everyone's admiration and their name on the school paper. For the sporty kids, the prize is sign up day, plus usually their name in the school paper, etc.  For the kids that chased merit money, they also have a little scholarship ceremony. There is also a ceremony for kids who are National Merit Scholars of any kind, including commended. Of course, it's true that it all can be very deceiving, and there is a strong element of self promotion. We chased merit with my oldest, and she had quite an impressive amount of scholarship money overall. In the end, she accepted one of the smaller scholarships and she chose not to attend the celebration, although she had attended the National Merit one. 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think there is a difference between reporting all scholarships and listing all college acceptances.  $20k at one school might be a drop in the bucket - a third to a quarter of the cost of attendance. At another school it could be close to a full ride.  And of course a student can't use aid from multiple schools.

The list of acceptances is a little more informative. It indicates that the instruction and experiences provided by the school were seen as competitive by certain institutions.  I would think one thing if a school listed only in state non selective colleges than if they list a wide variety of colleges. Even though I know it depends on individual students' application packages.

[Arch at Home]

This is very misleading. My oldest’s list of schools included both full-need and merit-based schools. She received more money from the full-need schools but that money was never calculated because it was not “scholarship” money and instead came in the form of grants. 

This practice goes back a long ways as my own guidance counselor encouraged me to chase scholarship money for this very purpose. 

[retiredHSmom]

This bothers me too and for different reasons this year than when it bothered me before.  

I have three children, 2 girls and then 1 boy.  My daughters both studied STEM topics and both received huge scholarships everywhere they applied.

My son had slightly better test scores than his sisters, the same GPA, the same levels and grades in dual-enrollment classes and a lot stronger extra-curricular/leadership credentials.  He applied to the same level of state schools.  (he was in the top 5% of verbal SAT scores at the school he accepted and the top 15% for Math SAT, top 9% overall) He is not an URM, we are above average income and we have much higher income than when the girls applied for college.  He got $0 in scholarships from state schools (he didn't apply to any private schools) and small scholarships from out-of-state schools.

I knew that this would happen and even mentioned it to my husband several years ago.  But it still hurt on some level.  He worked just as hard as his sisters and is just as worthy of recognition.  

Because we knew this would happen, we planned for it.  We can afford to pay for him to attend the college he chose.  It just irks me. He is not less worthy than they were, he didn't work less. He knows this and yet it would hurt to sit there hearing the school brag about all the scholarship money that the students earned and not be part of that.  He is  not a special snowflake, we wouldn't complain but still...

[DawnM]

12 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

I think there is a difference between reporting all scholarships and listing all college acceptances.  $20k at one school might be a drop in the bucket - a third to a quarter of the cost of attendance. At another school it could be close to a full ride.  And of course a student can't use aid from multiple schools.

The list of acceptances is a little more informative. It indicates that the instruction and experiences provided by the school were seen as competitive by certain institutions.  I would think one thing if a school listed only in state non selective colleges than if they list a wide variety of colleges. Even though I know it depends on individual students' application packages.

Heck, my son's over $12K scholarship offer from one private school is more than the entire public school cost!  But even with the scholarship, it is triple the cost of the public college.

 

 

[daijobu]

On 4/15/2018 at 7:37 AM, Hoggirl said:

How do y’all think this compares to a list of “accepted schools” put out by a high school?  Ds’s high school alma mater does this.  He was accepted to nine schools of various selectivity.  Every school that every graduate was admitted to was listed in the graduation program, but of course, they each only attend one.  

Well, before you posted I would have thought that was useful information to have.  But as you pointed out (and I am learning for the first time), you could potentially have 1 student who gets into all the ivies, while everyone else enrolls in state U, and suddenly the whole class looks very impressive.  

[Farrar]

2 hours ago, daijobu said:

Well, before you posted I would have thought that was useful information to have.  But as you pointed out (and I am learning for the first time), you could potentially have 1 student who gets into all the ivies, while everyone else enrolls in state U, and suddenly the whole class looks very impressive.  

This is exactly the case at a high school ds looked at. I knew they weren't super competitive, so I was surprised by the list of accepted schools... turned out it was just a couple of kids. The rest of the students were mostly attending a few local colleges and community colleges. Which is fine! But yeah, all these "stats" that schools put out are pretty misleading.

[catz]

I'm not even sure the list of colleges is super interesting.   A high stat kid going to honors college at a state school for financial reasons and only applied to that school is not lesser than any other similar high stat kid that can afford an elite private school.   If you know you cannot afford an elite private school, why apply?  These decisions are so tied into personal finances I just don't see any reason to publicize them.  

If they want to publicize a meaningful list, how about just making about kid's accomplishments? 

[Farrar]

Having just looked at a lot of high schools with ds... I do think the whole thing can sort of begin to form a picture, as long as you know that some of it is pretty empty. So the scholarship money, the graduation rates, the number of AP's offered, the accepted schools, the honors won by students, the amount of community service performed, etc. etc. Together it does start to give you a sense, as long as you look at a lot of things with a grain of salt.

[catz]

10 hours ago, Farrar said:

Having just looked at a lot of high schools with ds... I do think the whole thing can sort of begin to form a picture, as long as you know that some of it is pretty empty. So the scholarship money, the graduation rates, the number of AP's offered, the accepted schools, the honors won by students, the amount of community service performed, etc. etc. Together it does start to give you a sense, as long as you look at a lot of things with a grain of salt.

Just musing, but couldn't you also get a picture with average GPA, average SAT/ACT scores, # of AP and SAT-2 tests successfully completed, # of volunteer hours, # of sport games/matches, student awards, unique achievements, etc of a graduating class rather than including information that basically reflected the finances of the class?  I especially don't like this at a public school.  At a private school?  Well, I guess that's their prerogative.  

I really am not wild about the idea that we encourage the mind set that a high school student needs the external validation of a particular college acceptance or a scholarship to legitimize a high school experience.  The students and their accomplishments can be celebrated on their own.   And the whole admissions/financial aid game really doesn't always make sense.