Scholarships — When They are Rescinded
September 26th, 2007We talk a lot about winning scholarships, researching and competing for them, but we haven’t touched at all on losing them. What types of circumstances justify a school or organization rescinding a scholarship?
When Students Fail to Make the Grade
Thousands of high school and college students win lucrative merit scholarships each year. Though it may seem obvious there may be some students that fail to realize that they can be taken away. Scholarships awarded to academically remarkable students are typically attached with the contingency that students must maintain a certain minimum GPA. Particularly for renewable scholarships, students must be clear on the terms of their award. Students that may have produced outstanding work in high school may struggle in the college realm.
Scholarship verbiage often contains directions such as “must maintain GPA of ____ in all courses related to student’s major.” In the case of a Computer Science major, do sub-par work in Discrete Math and you stand to lose your scholarship.
When Scholarship for Service Agreements Fail
Some scholarships come attached with a contingency that binds students to a term of service, such as:
- Corporate scholarships that require recipients fulfill internship responsibilities, or to agree to a career with Company X following graduation.
- Government scholarships like the David L. Boren Scholarships are very competitive and for a reason—they fund a full year of intensive study abroad. However, the hitch is that students must be willing to work for the Department of Defense or Homeland Security following graduation.
- Government or university scholarships for teachers and nurses that require grads work in underserved school systems or medical facilities.
So, what happens if you’ve completed school (scholarship is spent), and you decide you have no interest in working for Company X or pushing a pencil for the DoD, or spending the first two years of your nursing career in a free clinic? In most cases you’re responsible for full repayment of the scholarship.
When Switching Majors Can Really Sting
There are many cases in which choosing a college major is really not that critical a decision in the larger scheme of things, what’s most important is the bigger choice: to go to college and persevere while there. However, students that accept scholarships “need-based or merit-based” attached to college or university departments of study may find themselves locked into a career. Here’s a scenario: when you applied for your music scholarship you were so sure of your choice of Music major. Now, you’re a junior and having serious second thoughts; you’d prefer to switch to English Literature and may still have time to pull it off.
Chances are good you can kiss your scholarship goodbye and may be expected to repay what you already ‘used’ toward that music major you failed to stick with.
The bottom line is this: scholarships have a bottom line. They are loosely termed ‘free money,’ but most come bundled with terms and criteria you must be willing to seriously consider. If you cannot hold up your end of the scholarship bargain will you be able to finish school without it?
