Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Rising scholarship funds to rising college costs

A reason to keep merit scholarships open to "rich" kids is to not punish them for their parents' wealth. Most "rich" kids have few assets to their name -- it's their parents who have the income and assets. There are rich parents like me who will pay for the college education of their children, but there are also rich parents who think, perhaps based on their own experiences when college was much cheaper, that college costs are the responsibility of the student.

You can regularly read on College Confidential about kids taking huge loans because colleges deem them rich while their parents are not willing to contribute what the colleges expect.

Yes-- and even back when I was a student, this was a significant problem. My own parents very much expected that I would "work my way" through college, and it was barely feasible then, and even so, my GPA jumped 0.5 my last year in college, when I finally said "I can't keep doing this" and quit my 40hr/week, minimum wage job in favor of loans.

I did have friends whose parents COULD pay (mine probably really couldn't have done much more than pay for textbooks and half of my tuition), but who REFUSED to do so for a variety of reasons.

It's complicated, and frankly-- the BEST scenario is one in which colleges rein in their own expenses to some degree, and realize that what the market will bear is not necessarily morally okay, nor "affordable" for all but the top 1% of households.

I asked based upon your previous post; If not relevant to this forum, why did you choose to introduce that program, and its students receiving "a ton of scholarship money" into the conversation?

What is your source for your expressed belief that AVID would not apply to any kids on this forum? From the AVID website, amongst their listed radio programs, I find "A National Authority’s Moral Imperative on Gifted Education".

Well, there's that difference in perspective again! I do believe that it is possible for children to work hard in academics, in music, etc. In that same sense, I would consider myself as having worked hard in my profession even though most of the time it is also "safe, comfortable, and quiet".

I mentioned that program in one of the posts only to account for that high $15 million figure, not to initiate a discussion regarding that program. I have not researched this program nor compiled data relating to it. I can only go by how our district implements this program and the information provided by our administrators. As I stated in my previous post, this program is for the academic middle ONLY in our district, not for the GT or honors/advanced population. My children would not be allowed to sign up for the classes in this program, etc. I may be wrong but I do assume that the parents on this forum have gifted kids or at least bright kids who would qualify for honors/advanced classes and therefore would be outside the scope of this program.

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Yes, I was curious as to how much of that "high $15 million figure" you are accounting for with this "ton of scholarship money"? Is this Merit Scholarships? Financial Need? Special Populations?

A significant number of forum posts seem to be about gifted children experiencing achievement at the academic middle, and seeking remedies for underachievement.

By your description, it sounds exclusive/elitist. Might some children feel bad if they cannot access this opportunity?

The AVID website describes advanced classes. Statistics boast of the number of AVID students taking AP exams! The website also mentions Summer STEM classes in Math and Science (reminiscent of summer classes described up-thread, whose participants were labeled as pampered and privileged... a negative connotation, seeming to discount both a child's need for advanced academics and a child's hard work in the class to yield a level of academic achievement).

Not sure why we should aid wealthy parents because they have a philosophy, rather than aiding bright students who overcome significant obstacles to obtain their educations.


Yes, because the price is too high. That's the real problem, and members of every SES should be able to get behind pushing to solve it, because members of every strata would benefit.

Right, it's all about perspective.

For example, writing a research paper for school can be hard. But it's even harder when you don't have regular access to the internet or a computer. It's harder still when the area where you can work is loud and full of distractions. And it's harder yet when you haven't had enough to eat that day.

For someone who has no experience with any of that, their idea of "hard" is going to be somewhat distorted.

And that's just for academic pursuits. A 10-hour shift waiting tables or working on a road crew is an orders of magnitude different kind of "hard."

Would you explain why you mention aiding parents vs aiding students? Some may say that regardless of philosophy/obstacles, a scholarship primarily aids the student, and secondarily may aid the parents/family?

As a side note, a broad range of parental philosophies can be an obstacle for a student, ranging from very uninvolved parents who may not read to or converse with their young children, to overly involved pushy tiger parents or helicopter parents.

Agreed! As a side note, some may seek to solve this for their child only (for example competitive edge for scholarship), some may seek to solve this by infusing money into scholarship funds, some may seek to solve this by getting on boards and/or bringing about changes in a college/university tuition/scholarship policy. At the root may be a wide range of viewpoints on thoughts of redistribution, sustainability, equal opportunity, equity, and the enduring question of what is just. There may be a broad range of right answers... initiatives which help motivate students toward internal locus of control and self-sufficiency, while bringing out the best in people.

For families whose child/ren are not in the Davidson Young Scholar (DYS) program: It is my understanding that seminar information is made available to the general public, without fee or registration so access is not an issue. Resource-rich content is found on the Davidson Database, under Tips for Parents. Past scholarship seminars summarized here.