I'm five decades away from this process, so someone clue me in...
A high school student in Louisiana has received more than $9m in scholarship offers, an amount that leaves him at least close to clinching what is believed to be a US record.Dennis Barnes has been offered aid from 125 colleges and universities, after maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 4.98, among other academic accomplishments, at International high school in New Orleans.Hoping to collect more than $10m in offered scholarships, he is waiting on responses from a number of the 200 colleges to which he applied, school officials said.
In the "old days" one requested (or was mailed) brochures, filled out forms, visited nearby locations, applied to one's favorites plus a couple "safety" options. Nowadays the process is online and presumably automated to facilitate the process, but this student has a GPA of 4.98. Is this necessary to find the best scholarship, or is it an ego trip?
With a 4.98 he's going to go to college and likely the one of choice. This is just a game for shits and giggles while burning the resources of 200 schools.
ReplyDeleteThe different from the "old days" is the common application, which you can send to many colleges at once. https://www.commonapp.org/
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is right, with a 4.98 she can go wherever.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the intensity of competition for students with normal grades is such that they do end up applying to more colleges than was necessary in "your time". This largely because tuition costs have increased so much and the adjudication of scholarships is quite frankly a black box for most applicants. Schools may think they're all transparent about their scholarships because it's all right there on their website at www.school.edu/applicants/scholarships/rules/handytips/2023#comment-form, but they forget that the applicants only go through the process ones, and are roughly 17. Imagine the difference in understanding of a dean who's been dean for a decade and a 17 year-old trying to sort this out at 12 different colleges, while taking into account whatever preferences each scholarship has: race, gender, income level, socioeconomic background, etc There is something for almost everybody, but sorting that out is very hard when you're mostly overwhelmed with hormones because Jada kissed you for the first time last week and you have a science project due next week.
We are asking too much from our teenagers.
This was a few decades ago for me but at my high school students could only exceed the standard 4.0 GPA by taking AP classes that, due to their supposed difficulty, added an extra 20 points to final grades.
ReplyDeleteHowever we were told repeatedly that colleges wouldn't recognize anything over 4.0 on applications. Extra digits just determined who'd be valedictorian, but I don't think any of my class made it over 4.3.
4.98 is a really impressive achievement.
Dr. Google says the average college application fee is $43.
ReplyDeleteBaffles me why someone would apply to that many schools and potentially block up spots for students on the waiting lists of maybe their dream school.
ReplyDeleteNothin more then a ego boost and waste of money and time
Perhaps some day, this young man will be able to do what Pete Kadens did in 2020.
ReplyDelete"Pete Kadens announced he would pay tuition, room and board, books and fees for the seniors at Scott High School in Toledo, Ohio. He will be spending about $3 million to send the students to college. Pete also offered to pay for their parents to go to college or trade school."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/free-college-tuition-scott-high-school-pete-kadens-toledo-ohio-students-responsibility/
His offer led to the creation of the HOPE-Toledo.
https://www.hope-toledo.org/
Also, Robert F. Smith pledged to pay off student loans for every member of Morehouse College’s graduating class of 2019. He did, but got himself into some difficulty later.
Speaking as someone in higher ed for a long time... There's a lot going on in this story that probably wouldn't occur to a casual reader. I'm not familiar with the New Orleans school, but it appears to brand itself on its college placement credentials (100% last year, according to the website). A story like this helps them propagate that brand, so the administration probably backs the student -- they might even give him academic credit for this "independent project." Application fees are not trivial, so either someone is sponsoring this (possibly the student's family, he is working on establishing his own "brand" too!), or he qualifies for a fee waiver. Despite what other commenters have said, his applications do not waste the resources of colleges, and do no "block up spots" for other students. Colleges love apps from strong students, as it improves their overall stats. If all this seems a bit cynical to you, welcome to modern higher education.
ReplyDeleteI'd also mention that the reporting here should probably be viewed with a huge dose of skepticism. (The "author" appears to be a stateside editor who mostly passes along wire stories after minor editing.) I sincerely doubt that much effort was put into confirming the details in what probably originated as a press release from the high school. One thing that I would like to see clarified in particular is how much of this aid is actually "scholarships" -- real money that can be used for any college expense -- as opposed to the increasingly common "discounts" -- tuition reductions for attractive students that amounts to clever bookkeeping on the part of the university.