I was browsing through Yahoo and just found this “news” article about Michael Jordan’s son, Jeffrey, who is going to Illinois instead of Valparaiso, turning down a Valpo scholarship to play for the Big 10 school*. However, the article does note that he’s taking a smaller, academic scholarship at Illinois.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. Not, of course, that it matters. But part of me is feeling stabby that the kid of a rich guy is taking scholarships while poor kids are working three jobs while trying to pull a full course load. On the other hand, good for Jeffrey, and if his academic work is good, why should he be excluded from the rewards that earns just because his father (presumably) has a lot of money?
I guess if it were I as the rich parent, I’d encourage my kid to take the scholarship as his own reward for his own work, but then I’d donate at least the same amount to the school to be given out in additional scholarships.
Any thoughts?
*And that, dear reader, is all I know or care about college basketball. I’m not so interested in this particular case, but the larger question in the title.
Maybe Michael Jordan is like a lot of parents and thinks that once a person reaches 18, they should be responsible for their own education. The whole “I did it, so can you.” I wasn’t brought up with this credo, but I find it admirable.
Where does ‘rich’ end, though? My parents have a combined income of over $100,000 a year. Is this rich enough to qualify?
Moreover, how would scholarship committees decide fairly? Billy got a 4.0 GPA but his father makes $50k a year more than Jenny, who got a 3.8. But Jenny’s an only child and Billy’s family has a dozen kids they need to send to college. Also, his mom’s in the hospital…
If I have a pile of money I want to give to people, I think I should get to choose how I give it away and to whom. But if I had millions and millions of dollars, enough to actually give contributions to colleges, I’d consider my kid’s alma mater as a worthy candidate. Or, indeed, the scholarship committee – but only after I didn’t have children capable of getting their scholarships anymore.
That’s nice and all, but colleges don’t agree. Unless you’ve been legally emancipated, anyone under a certain age (I don’t remember if it’s 21 or 23) has to submit their parents’ tax returns, and that’s what need based financial aid is based on. In other words, if you have a rich parent, your education costs more, even if Dad says he’s not going to pay a dime of your education.
Also, many (most?) divorce decrees in the last decade or so specify which parent shall fund the children’s education. New Jersey (and maybe some other states) even requires it be addressed in all divorces involving children, IIRC.
So, by many people, it is assumed that if they can afford it, parents should and will pay for college.
And I say this as a parent who can’t. But I’ve been very clear with my son since he was a wee tot that while I’m saving what I can, he can’t count on me for more than a few thousand dollars for college - enough to buy textbooks, probably.
Hmm. I never thought of leaving it up to the scholarship committee. I was thinking more along the lines of when, ethically, a student should refuse a scholarship and say, “No thanks, Dad and/or I have tuition covered. Give this to the next best applicant who really needs it.”
Which, I guess, means that “rich” begins and ends with “can afford tuition without the scholarship or other financial aid”.
I agree that a person has and should have the right to choose how to give away their money. I’m not interested in compulsory giving. I’m interested in the ethics of the thing, I guess.
I think I’m inclined to say that if you can qualify for a Merit Scholarship–either Academic or Athletic, more power to you.
There should exist need-based scholarships, and those should not be given to the children of rich kids.
But Merit-based scholarships are frequently used as tools to encourage the best and the brightest (or the strongest and the fastest) to choose program A over program B. And the money associated with them is not neccessarily available to give to that worthy person struggling to make ends me with three jobs.
Aside to Little Plastic Ninja,
Combined income of 100K per year? Not a rich people’s kid. Well, it depends on the college–the local community college may well count you as a rich people’s kid and decline to give you money. But many, many competitive colleges these days cost well over 25 K/year–especially when you add room and boad to tuition. So go ahead, fill out that FAFSA, apply to the college of your dreams, regardless of the expense.
And then seriously consider how much debt it makes sense to acquire just to get an education.
On the other hand, I see something admirable in turning down a merit based scholarship and saying “please give it to someone else.” And there have been corporate executives who have turned down large salaries or options and continued to do their jobs. So a merit based scholarship - you have every right to accept it even if your Dad is Michael Jordan, but turning it down (assuming Dad is willing to pay for college anyway) is an admirable thing.
I guess if it were I as the rich parent, I’d encourage my kid to take the scholarship as his own reward for his own work, but then I’d donate at least the same amount to the school to be given out in additional scholarships.
Any thoughts?
[QUOTE]
My thought is: How do you know that Michael Jordan didn’t do exactly that or something close to that?
If the rolling-in-dough parents of a kid who got a scholarship said “Hey, it’s great that you got that scholarship, but we started a trust fund for your college when you were born - why don’t you write a nice letter declining it”, I would be full of admiration and praise for them.
If a scholarship is merit based I don’t think rich kids should be barred - they worked to achieve whatever the requirements are and shouldn’t be banned because their parents have money.
However, I went to a fairly expensive private college and knew quite a few students who were wearing designer clothes and bragging about their “scholarships” when the only merit involved was who they had the luck to be born to. I wasn’t wearing designer clothes and my single-parent mom certainly wasn’t rich, but the main reason I got my partial scholarship was because my mom’s boss was on the Board of Trustees. Even with very good high school grades, scholarships at that school were much more about who you knew than what you did.
Again, that article brought the larger question to my mind, and provided me with some nice real names, instead of “Suppose A’s dad, B…” which I find annoying in OPs. It’s context for my thoughts, not the frame of the discussion.
When I went to college in 1984 my parents were middle class. They had a house with a large mortgage on it. My dad had a decent job. My mother worked part time for a little over minimum wage. They’d never saved a penny for college, counting on financial aid and scholarships. I don’t know that they made 100k in today’s dollars - maybe.
I got honorary scholarships. My parents made too much money for me to get scholarships. I couldn’t get financial aid at a State School - and only loans at a private school.
Now, granted, we didn’t really understand the system. Had I applied to more private schools, one may have come through with aid. My parents were interested in low cost, so I was really only encouraged to go to a state school, and only within driving distance.
On the other hand, I went to a school my parents were able to afford (though it was a stretch) and got out without loans - which since everyone I know who did go private had loans as part of their aid package, was a nice thing.
My parents contributed exactly 0 dollars to my college education. I don’t know how much they could have contributed—every time they got a little money, they bought a new car or something. At one point, they had 8 cars and 2 motorcycles, and a giant huge new garage to store them in. So, scholarships–need and merit based–were pretty important to me, because they were all I had. My sisters, as well.
A merit-based scholarship has nothing to do with who a kid’s parents are. I saw lots of students who I knew to be rich accepting merit-based scholarships when I was in HS. I suppose I could have been bitter about it–but I also knew those students worked damned hard to get them. People have to earn their scholarships, and I have no problem with wealthy people earning scholarships.
Also there is a lot of money out there. Lots and lots and lots of money. 2/3rd of my college education was paid for completely in scholarships and grants–and I went to a school with a $22,000/year tuition. Not that “poor kids working 3 jobs and trying to take a full course load” don’t exist, but in my experience, there is a metric shit-tonne of aid money out there. There are need based scholarships, scholarships if you’re first generational, scholarships if you’re from a certain area, scholarships for books, scholarships for essays, specific scholarships set up through schools, low-interest loans, and more. If you really want to afford college, regardless of your background, it’s more than possible.
The people that built the scholarship designed the terms. That was their choice and the way things should work. I have no problem whatsoever if Michael Jordan’s child or even Bill Gates’ child earns a merit scholarship. That is an honor for the child and the child only and it doesn’t matter who the parents are.
I actually had two full scholarships in college and I switched between them from year to year because the terms and benefits because of the slightly different benefits from year to year.
As pepperlandgirl says, there is a metric shitload of scholarships available in the U.S. in all forms. Smart poor or lower middle class kids have the biggest advantage for these. I suppose my family’s income fell under that definition when I entered college and I almost had to beat the offers off. Under those conditions, I can’t see why rich kids should have to constantly live in their parents shadow and can’t earn something on their own.
My experience at UIUC was that academic scholarships were given out by specific groups for specific reasons, and these often came with a title the student could put on their resume. For example, the Mechanical Engineering department might select 10 incoming freshmen to be “Mechanical Engineering Scholars”, print their name in a newsletter, and invite them to a luncheon or something. Some scholarships came with special privileges or requirements – for example, you get to register early, you have to keep a certain GPA, take certain honors classes, etc.
So my point is that the people who organize these things usually have some motivation besides just giving out money, there is also the element of publicly recognizing talent. If a rich kid gets such an honor then I think it’s his responsibility is to live up to expectations and be a positive member of the school, having him turn down the recognition seems to water it down somehow.
While there is a lot of total money out there, it’s amazing how much of it is limited by gender, age, race, religion, ethnicity, major or location.
I remember running one of those scholarship finder programs back in my undergrad days and I’ll never forget the message I got back: “With your attributes you qualify for 0 scholarships.”
I don’t doubt your tale–but have you seen how much tuition has increased since then? I went to college ten years later than you did, and tuition at my college of choice (admittedly, a small(ish), competative, private college) has doubled since then.