Exactly-- and those awards are "real" enough-- but I don't think that is how you get up to a figure like that reported million-plus value-- unless you're in a HUGE urban district. I'll be honest here: my DD is entering college next fall, and even in a pretty high-performing district, I can't believe a figure like 20K per student.
Not unless ALL of them are attending private colleges or on athletic scholarships at public ones, which also seems hard to believe.
I know plenty of kids in that MG tier, who are academic performers (that is, they are "good" but not "extraordinary" students)-- and they have been awarded a big fat NOTHING at public institutions, and a big fat 20-30% tuition "discount" at private ones-- which sounds awesome as it's about a 20K award in some instances-- until you think about the fact that it still leaves another 30-40K annually that has to be paid for.
That means that those awards might be real, but they still don't do ANYTHING like making the college affordable.
Even one or two Questbridge scholars, though, can really amp the number-- those are often tier one/elite schools with pricetags to match, and those are low-income FULL RIDE scholarships based on merit. So those awards really are 250K or more. DD knows 2 Questbridge scholars-- and we also know which institutions they are at. One of those awards is worth an estimated 265K, and the other is worth 280K.
Those are the ONLY merit scholarships like that of which I am aware, and as noted, they aren't even available to anyone whose household income qualifies as "middle class."
