Colleges and universities have dozens, maybe hundreds, of scholarships to give away!

Do you know how to search a college or university website for scholarships? Digging up scholarships from college websites has become second nature for us. But it occurred to me that many students might not know how to find those college scholarship lists buried as they can be on deep college pages.

I’m going to share some quick tips that should help you find the scholarship resources you need on any college website, including some you could be missing.

First, let’s understand the common types of scholarships a college provides:

• Institutional scholarships—target general students and are based on academic merit and/or financial need.
• Endowed scholarships are likely department specific, and target a much smaller population of students typically studying in a particular subject or pursuing a certain degree.

**An endowed scholarship is one funded by private sources, often outside alumnae or corporations, usually with fond ties to the institution or department. You’ll also see many awards that have been established in memory of a student or faculty member, also endowed scholarships.

1. Here is a step by step strategy to follow for finding institutional scholarships on a college website:

• Start at ABC College’s homepage, not the bookstore page or the football team’s page, but the main page, probably something like, www.SomeCollege.edu.
• There are some pretty standard links on this page (obviously if any links say “scholarships” that should be a no-brainer, but that situation is rare); look for “Admissions,” “financial aid,” or “financial aid and tuition.” You might be given more general categories, like “prospective students” or “current students.” Some colleges try to make it more intuitive, with links like “paying for school.” Also, many sites feature a “Quick Links” drop down menu. Here you are likely to find a standard “financial aid” link.
• From the Financial Aid main page, you will likely have a choice of links including “how to apply,” “forms and applications,” and “types of financial aid.” Usually the “types of financial aid” link is the lead-in to information on scholarships, as well as loans and work-study programs.
• Follow the “scholarships” link. Chances are good you’ll end up on a page that tells you a bit about the institutional scholarships available, those merit and need-based general scholarships, plus information on eligibility and applying.
• Often there are further links for “outside scholarships” and “endowed scholarships.” Use these to access more targeted awards.

**To sum up what we just did: you should find the general merit and need scholarships on a webpage in the Financial Aid section of the college or university website. When in doubt, always head for “financial aid.”

2. Find endowed or departmental scholarships:

There are a couple of different ways to find the department-specific scholarships on a college or university website.

From the college homepage search any ‘academics’ link, and this should lead you further to a directory of departmental schools and subjects, such as biology or anthropology. After making your selection, most likely you will be lead to the department homepage. This is where your search can get tricky: from here you will likely have two search methods to choose from:

• Direct link to scholarships
• Hunt and peck method

Department specific scholarships may be as easy to find as the “endowed scholarships” link or they may be buried in deeper department pages with little direction on how to access them directly.

Here’s an example I just picked to examine the ‘hunt and peck method’, starting at Georgetown’s homepage:

I see the words ‘academic departments’ on the main menu, so I’m headed in the right direction.

From Georgetown University’s Academic Programs page I noticed a link stating, "All academic programs A-Z". Perfect!

Anthropology was selected from the list and I arrived at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

From there I had the following tabs/links from which to choose: Home, About, Programs, Courses, Faculty, Research, and Resources. Logically, which would you choose to explore first? I chose “Resources.”

There I had to choose from even more targeted links, and I went with “For Anthropology Students,”, it seemed logical.

Finally, that led me to the Anthropology Student Resource page and a long list of departmental scholarships and fellowship programs.

See? It can get tricky and I occasionally choose incorrectly using websites of different universities.

**The trick to finding departmental or endowed scholarships: be persistent. What do I do when I’m at a dead end? Back out and try again.

Use Google to find specific pieces of a college website:

When all else fails defer to Google: open a fresh Google search page. In the search box type in a query like this: scholarships <name of department><name of school> then hit Enter or the Search button. For example, I queried:

scholarships anthropology georgetown university

First search result: the GU Anthro department page (same page I described above where I clicked on the Resources link).

**Tip: Large universities house related departments inside colleges. The “College of Arts and Humanities,” for instance, will likely have a variety of departments like English and Sociology, so you might have to dig through a few academic layers to really get to the place where you want to be. If you get confused: Google the department name and university, simple as that.

The Pleasure Was All Mine

I was standing outside the “The Joint”, a club inside the Hard Rock Casino where the Blog World Expo was hosting a free food and booze event. The Best of Blogs Awards and our Blogging Scholarship were to be presented at some time during the event.

Arriving early holding the box containing my big ol’ prize check, I just mingled with the organizers and other people passing by. Surprisingly, a beautiful woman approached from behind and asked if I was Daniel Kovach. I confirmed, and she told she was Kimberley Klein, our Blogging Scholarship Grand Prize Winner! I was ecstatic.

A short time later Kim pulled me over to meet another Blogging Scholarship finalist, Chris Clark who was attending the conference since Vegas was close to his home. I really enjoy his blogging style, so definitely go check it out if you haven’t already.

Kim also introduced me to her husband, Randy. The three of us decided to have a seat at the bar and get to know each other. We chatted for around an hour and the time flew by b/c they were so fun to be around. I can tell that despite all that has happened between them, they are truly happy people.

To get to the point, meeting Kim was the highlight of my trip. She has a glow, a charm, a charisma, among other good qualities, all packaged together to create a presence rarely seen in my lifetime. I’m running out of words to describe how awesome of a person she is.

I could not have picked a better winner, but remember….I didn’t. It was an open voting contest, and I’m totally satisfied with the outcome. There were many people who questioned this voting method and I understand their concerns. I was contemplating going away from the voting style for next year’s contest and moving towards getting a panel of reputable blogger judges to make the final decisions. FYI, we did this a few months ago with our Web Design Scholarship.

I’ll have to advise a ton a people on this, and should have the answer soon. Any constructive, well thought-out feedback would be appreciated. Thank you everyone!

Kimberley Klein

Grand Prize – $10,000

Congratulations Kimberley!
She’ll be in Las Vegas on November 8th to accept the award as part of the Blog World and New Media Expo.

The two runners up, Jess Kim and Shelley Batts, will each be awarded $1,000.

The remaining 7 finalists in the top 10 will be sent a $100 award for their participation. This includes:

• Thomas Peters
• Matthew Burden
• Grant Brisbee
• Paul Stamatiou
• Shane Lavalette
• Stephanie Collins
• Karin Dalziel

Barriers to Higher Education are Alive and Well

The Higher Education Act of 1965 launched some of the first financial programs aimed at the support of low-income and disadvantaged students. Since then, dozens of federal and state scholarship and grant programs have been developed to assist the same. A popular theory remains: more and more free money will put more disadvantaged and minority students into college and solve the problem of low college attendance rates among high poverty students. Regardless of the money higher education continues to throw at low-income students, the numbers actually attending college and staying in college remain low. If money is not the solution, then what’s the problem?

The Problem

There are significant numbers of public funds already available for low-income students. Add to this the increasing trend among elite and reputable colleges and universities to spring for full tuition scholarships for academically eligible disadvantaged students and a more relevant question becomes: “With the money available already for low-income and minority students, why do so many fail to earn a college degree?” What circumstances beyond the financial, continue to impede the educational roadway of the disadvantaged student, and why does higher education, at large, repeat the same ineffective gestures in its quest for the solution?

Dream of College Access for All Americans

President Lyndon B. Johnson dreamed of building our country into one in which “a high school senior [could] apply to any college or any university in any of the 50 States and not be turned away because his family is poor…” He further declared, “Education in this day and age is a necessity.”¹ He made these statements on the same day he signed the Higher Education Act of 1965 into legislation. If higher education was deemed a necessity in 1965, then it has become critical by today’s standards.

For the most part President Johnson’s dream has become a reality, but outside of the financial, some of the same barriers to higher education remain:

• Schools that fail to adequately prepare students for college.
• Outside influences and expectations, especially those of parents/family and educators.
• Psychological factors.

Secondary Schools Fail to Prepare Students for College

Regardless of the money available to low-income students, in many cases students fail to even qualify for college admission. Perhaps, as some critics of the current system argue, where career and guidance counselors proactive in “talking up” college as soon as middle school, kids particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds would incorporate college goals into their futures much more naturally than when career and education goals are thought inconsequential.

Educators, including teachers, counselors, and principals, simply have low expectations of disadvantaged students, say some proponents of education reform. An overall neglect of college preparation routinely takes place at most minority and high poverty high schools. The perception that disadvantaged students will either not make it into college, have little interest in higher education, or be unworthy of the time spent to get them prepared, are all subversive and deeply damaging perceptions. At best this disregard is a primitive throwback to the same circumstances President Johnson sought to bury.

The Non-Existent College Prep Curricula

Average, college bound high school seniors are alarmingly unprepared for the rigors of college academics, but an even more disturbing population of low-income and minority students seem to avoid college altogether or possess test scores and academic records that have put many in higher education on alert. In fact, the circumstances renew debate over the quality of public school systems: “Nine in ten high school graduates from families earning more than $80,000 attend college by the time they are 24, compared to only six in ten from families earning less than $33,000.”²

Research proves that many of the so-called high school assessment tests “bear little resemblance to the work [students] are expected to do in college.” Despite the best hopes of those students that do possess college degree expectations, preparation for such is sorely lacking—students again and again clearly “lack crucial information on applying to college and on succeeding academically once they get there.”³ College administrators report that most students only think they are academically prepared; the sobering reality is that the so-called college prep curriculum they slogged through in high school was not college level work, after all.

Ironically, this lack of preparedness is the ailment of many average high school grads, and not exclusive to low-income students. But evidence shows that “a greater percentage of low-income students are marginally qualified or unqualified for admission at four-year institutions.”⁴

And college prep includes providing students the appropriate information with which to pursue college, including college search, financial aid and scholarships, and admissions processes. But in many disadvantaged schools the information is not disseminated, not included as a natural progression in education.

For students interested in pursuing college the process becomes a bit like fumbling in the dark: “many low-income college students need aid and do not know how to apply for federal or state assistance.”⁵ Low-income students often opt for a community college—open access and remedial coursework, and schedule flexibility that allows students to work part time and carry on normal family responsibilities.

High Scores vs. Student Success and the “Push-Out” Phenomenon

High schools across the country have new standards by which to adhere. Accountability in secondary education may play a significant part in the collegiate success or failure of certain students. Since the inception of No Child Left Behind the reliance on test-based schools has split students down the middle—in some areas. Students are either an asset or a deficit to a school.⁶

In New York City, test scores served to define a dispensable archipelago of students most likely to fail. Students at disadvantaged schools throughout the region were so overlooked that rogue administrators and educators systematically amputated from the system whole populations of underachievers for the “betterment” of the whole. The plan was simple: “push out” students with poor grades and low test scores and test score averages would look a lot better.⁷

The Teacher Factor

Does a high quality teacher make a difference to a low-income and/or disadvantaged student, and if so, why? A growing body of evidence shows that teachers do matter. But studies have begun to prove an alarming trend: “The very children who most need strong teachers are assigned, on average, to teachers with less experience, less education, and less skill than those who teach other children.”⁸

A study that surveyed three Midwest revealed consistent data proving that in most low income schools teachers were much more likely to be “inexperienced, out-of-field, and uncertified.” Furthermore, as school enrollment of low-income students increased, the population of teachers hired grew increasingly inexperienced.⁹ Most studies declare five years of teaching experience as the dividing line between experienced and inexperienced.

The less experienced the teacher the less likely he or she is to be qualified or motivated to guide disadvantaged students in wise career and education choices. Surprisingly, teacher surveys have also proven that on the whole they, too, tend to have an unsure grasp on the college preparatory process.¹⁰

The qualities most valued and effective in high-quality teachers include:

• Over five years experience teaching within their specialty.
• Teachers able to modify methods on-the-fly and in direct response to student abilities.
• Teachers with degrees from reputable institutions.

Contemporary findings such as these provide more leverage for school systems, and lawmakers when it comes time to plan teacher distribution models designed to serve future generations of students.

Can Experienced Teachers Get Disadvantaged Students to College?

Data has been culled from a crew of challenged high schools, turned-high-performing, in various regions of the U.S. that proves high quality teachers can make a significant difference with at-risk youth. In every high performing school surveyed almost half the student bodies were from high minority-high poverty backgrounds. And in every case the population of college bound students had increased above the national average.

What factors set high performing high schools with diverse student bodies well above others in nurturing college ready graduates?

• High quality and experienced teachers able to adjust methods to suit students.
• A very relevant and challenging college preparatory curriculum that surpasses state requirements.
• Unlimited access to academic tutors and career advisors.¹¹

Part of the goal of the Higher Education Act of 1965 was to promote improvement in high minority/high poverty schools, including attracting more experienced teachers. Contrary to some, both these factors—schools and teachers—continue to figure prominently in the educational futures of students.

College Admission Requirements Detrimental to Disadvantaged Students

Whether high school or college, the fact is that reputation, high marks, selectivity ratings, and even cost of tuition, all constitute factors that conspire to create an institution’s reputation. Ratings and credentials have become a beacon for student business, a means to market and advertise a college to expanding populations of prospective students.

The annual U.S. News and World Report: America’s Best Colleges has become a much-anticipated publication.

New criticism, though, from college administrators aims to downplay the relevancy of some of the ratings, which many say have nothing to do with a good college education. Why so much fuss over ratings? The report has been widely dubbed the college “beauty contest,” and the higher colleges and universities have driven ratings the better their business. But in the process, some pieces of the academic puzzle have been forsaken, like some populations of students.

Ratings Drive Business, Which In Turn Drives Up Admission Reqs

Colleges and universities that rank well in the U.S. News report seek to be considered “selective.” This kind of marketing seems to make business more brisk, but it also makes it challenging to attract a large minority or low-income student population. In order to make a college accessible for the majority of low-income and disadvantaged students, admission requirements must be relaxed.

The traditional metrics of admission include SAT scores and GPA, precisely the type of measurements most low-income students suffer by. As we explored above, it’s not their responsibility—educators have been loath to provide the proper guidance and nurture—and, besides, SAT and GPA are rarely accurate indications of academic worthiness. This then is why a growing stable of college administrators is taking aim at the notoriously exclusive annual ratings race.¹²

Compared to the relatively small number of college administrators backing away from the ratings game, there are plenty that believe in its promise. For instance, a strong cadre of schools believes the marketing theory that overpriced products and services attract buyers and consumers because high price implies high quality. This then is why tuitions are hiked and SAT and GPA requirements inflated. Yet again, disadvantaged students are unable to reach certain institutions where, ironically, money is likely to exist for their education.

When Admission Hikes Purposely Dismiss Disadvantaged Students

Another strategy behind ramped up admission requirements seeks to purposely define the splinter group of underachievers and those students with low test scores and make it impossible for them to essentially clog the way of those students without academic challenges. Low income and minority students with low SAT scores and low GPAs “will be steered” to the state’s community colleges.

Simultaneously more college prep programs are being built into the state’s public school system. Students will now have a system in place able to alert them should their academics fall below realistic first year college goals.¹³

Outside Influences Offer Most Resistance to College Life

Besides money and academic challenge, many low-income and disadvantaged students face challenges much more murky to middle and upper income, white Americans. In some cases the influence of parents and family are more profound than more mainstream issues.¹⁴

Parental Influence

Consider the idea that many minority and low-income students come from first generation families, meaning no one else has yet gone to college. For many average American students, the dream of a college degree is fueled over the years by parents. When that drive is not there, other priorities may take precedence, such as job, finance and family.

It’s not that parents of first gen college students have no desire to see their children succeed, even go to college, but most are unable to provide the type of support necessary to bolster a fresh and, perhaps, disenfranchised college newbie.

Cultural Perceptions of Debt

Financial aid experts may also have discovered another roadblock—“cultural aversion to debt.” Over the years the financial aid needs of middle and upper income students have risen, but statistics have shown little or no increase in the student loan debt among low-income and ethnic minority student groups, which “calls into question the effectiveness of student loans in aiding low-income populations.” Studies strongly suggest that minorities are “more sensitive to price and less willing to use educational loans to pay for college when making their college decisions.”¹⁵

Tuition sticker shock may be a similar deterrent. Even though academically talented low-income students may qualify to enroll in elite universities where the ability to prove a certain level of disadvantage buys them a free ride, only a fraction of those actually eligible partake of the opportunity. The scholarships from institutions like Harvard and Princeton are not just in place for altruistic purposes. These “white-bread” institutions want to diversify and offering money for disadvantaged students seems a good idea. Surprisingly, a much larger wellspring of academically qualified low-income students is out there. SAT scores prove the numbers,¹⁶ but where are they?

Educator Expectation Matters, Too

The nation’s low-income students, including those with academic fortitude and those dubbed low-achievers, may share common bonds: many face familial and cultural obstacles, but do they also face low educator expectations? Studies have already measured the effect of educator expectation on the college outcomes of low-income, minority students and found alarming numbers of low-quality teachers and counselors with little hope for students in lower income brackets.

Teachers and advisors acting out of their personal beliefs and stereotypes may be unable to provide the unbiased guidance underserved students require to get them to the doorstep of a college campus, whether it be a community college or one of the elite universities.¹⁷

What Then if Not Money?

Considering the obstacles discussed above, are there further psychological impacts? If I am a student from a low-income household in which neither of my parents attended college, isn’t it likely that a college degree will not be a main priority in my life? And if I am academically talented, would I not feel out of place and disenfranchised on a Harvard campus even if my education were fully funded?

If I overheard teachers in my high school complaining about their jobs and saying that many of the students will be lucky to make it to graduation, much less college, would I not doubt my teachability, my worth as a student?

Harvard can roll out its red carpet and dangle full scholarships ‘til the cows come home, but what really eats away at the collegiate futures of low-income, minority students—talented or not—has little to do with money.

Footnotes

1. LBJ for Kids, accessed September 3, 2007, http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/lbjforkids/edu_whca370-text.shtm.
2. “Harvard Announces New Initiative to Aimed at Economic Barriers to College,” Harvard University Gazette, February 28, 2004, accessed September 5, 2007, http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/0402/28-finaid.html.
3. Rooney, Megan, “High Schools Fail to Prepare Many Students for College, Stanford Study Says,” March 3, 2003, accessed September 4, 2007, http://ed.stanford.edu/suse/news-bureau/displayRecord.php?tablename=susenews&id=25.
4. Andrea Venezia, Michael Kirst, Anthony Antonio, Betraying the College Dream: How Disconnected K-12 Schools and Postsecondary Education Systems Undermine Student Aspirations, 2003, accessed September 4, 2007, http://www.stanford.edu/group/bridgeproject/betrayingthecollegedream.pdf.
5. Kirst, Michael, “Betraying the College Dream in America,” The College Puzzle, August 21, 2007, accessed September 4, 2007, http://thecollegepuzzle.blogspot.com/2007/08/betraying-college-dream-in-america.html.
6. Beveridge, Andrew, “Counting Drop Outs,” Gotham Gazette, August 2003, accessed September 4, 2007, http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/demographics/20030814/5/492.
7. Beveridge, Andrew, Gotham Gazette.
8. Heather Peske, Kati Haycock, Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality, The Education Trust, June 2006, accessed September 2, 2007, http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/010DBD9F-CED8-4D2B-9E0D-91B446746ED3/0/TQReportJune2006.pdf.
9. Peski, Haycock, The Education Trust.
10. Venezia, Kirst, Antonio, Betraying the College Dream
11. “Preparing All High School Students for College and Work: What High-Performing Schools are Teaching,” ACT, February 23, 2005, accessed August 30, 2007, http://www.act.org/news/releases/2005/2-23-05.html.
12. “U.S. News College Rankings Debated,” The Online News Hour (transcript), PBS, August 20, 2007, accessed September 5, 2007, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec07/rankings_08-20.html.
13. Tresaugue, Matthew, “UT Campuses Will Raise Admission Standards,” University of Houston, May 10, 2007, accessed September 5, 2007, http://www.uh.edu/ednews/2007/hc/200705/20070510admission.html.
14. Szelenyi, Katalin, “Minority Student Retention and Academic Achievement in Community Colleges,” 2004, accessed August 29, 2007, http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-4/minority.html.
15. Cultural Barriers to Incurring Debt, ECMC Group Foundation, 2003, accessed September 3, 2007, http://www.ecmcfoundation.org/documents/CulturalBarriersExecSummary.pdf.
16. “Large Numbers of Highly Qualified, Low-Income Students Are Not Applying to Harvard and Other Highly Selective Schools,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 2006, accessed August 26, 2007, http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/52_low-income-students.html.
17. Patricia George and Rosa Aronson, How Do Educators’ Cultural Belief Systems Affect Underserved Students’ Pursuit of Postsecondary Education?” Pathways to College Network, 2003, accessed September 3, 2007, http://www.pathwaystocollege.net/pdf/EducatorsCulturalBeliefs.pdf.

Create a Simple RSS Mash-Up that Corrals Herds of Scholarship Data

Users with the most limited tech savvy and little interest in tinkering will be able to set up a small, but powerful Yahoo Pipe. A simple mash-up of disparate scholarship site feeds could save you an exquisite amount of time. The alternative is checking in, one at a time, on multiple bookmarked links or RSS feeds and sifting through dozens of news headlines for the scholarship info you’re really after. If you have not made the internet an integral component in your search for college funding then you are really going to be left out in the cold.

Yahoo Pipes was launched in the spring and I’ve only just tried it, but Wow! What a concept for wrestling information into submission. The visuals are fun and clean, and the utility is robust and fairly intuitive.

Explore the Interface

When you log onto Pipes/Create a Pipe, you are given a user interface that features a “Canvas” (“Drag Modules here”), Modules on the left in the “Library,” and the “Debugger,” below the Canvas, where you can view your Pipes output at various stages in the build. Y-Pipes is not hard and you cannot break anything. Build simple to complex data mash-ups via drag-and-drop functionality.

Let’s Create a Simple Scholarship Pipe

In the Create a Pipe user interface view: from the Sources drop-down menu in the left-hand library, drag and drop a Fetch Feed module on to the canvas. The Fetch Feed module opens up to show a +URL button and a field where you type in the feed URL of the website from which you want to monitor scholarship information, such as this one: http://www.collegescholarships.org/blog/wp-rss.php.

(Hint: How to find the site RSS feed-open up the webpage; this blog has a big, orange RSS icon. When you click on it you are taken to a page of pure RSS script; the URL in the address bar is the one you want to copy and paste into the Fetch Feed module).

Test out the feed: click on the Fetch Feed title bar, it will turn orange and any current feeds should appear down below in the Debugger field.

Add a second feed URL: click on the +URL button and paste in another feed URL, like this:

http://www.newscholarships.org/feed/

Now make sure the module is receiving both feeds by again clicking on the Fetch Feed title bar ; it turns orange. Click the “Refresh” link in the Debugger field. You should now see output for two RSS feeds in the Debugger. Continue adding feed URLs until you have the sites you’d like to monitor for information.

Finish building the Pipe by wiring together the Fetch Feed module and the Pipe Output module , which is already sitting on the bottom edge of the canvas—if you cannot see it, drag the Debugger’s upper edge downward until the Pipe Output mod is visible. To make a wire, click on the little circle along the bottom of the Fetch Feed module and drag a wire to the circle on the Pipe Output module. These are technically called “terminals.”

Refresh the Debugger output to make sure your pipe still works.

Yahoo Pipes allows you to publish and share your custom data pipe so other students seeking scholarships can use your information.

To Save and Publish:

Click the Save button and enter a name for your Pipe; save. Name it something that indicates what your pipe does, like “Scholarships and Grants.”

Click the Properties button:

Enter a brief description, for example, “simple search for general college scholarships.” Enter a few tags associated with the data: college, scholarships, and grants. Click Publish. When prompted to make your pipe public, click Publish (or Cancel if you prefer to keep it private).

Give your scholarship mash-up a test run: at the very top of the builder interface page, click on “Run Pipe.” In a new window you’ll see how your Scholarships Pipe appears to the real world—it’s a very clean list of scholarship information culled from the sources you chose.

Now this is about the simplest you can possibly make a Pipe, but feel free to experiment and even edit your creation. Thousands of users have created all kinds of intriguing data distillations. Here’s a link to my scholarships and grants pipe–slightly different configuration and use of a Filter module.

When it comes to scholarships, the name of the game is organization, persistence, and the ability to harness unfathomable amounts of dynamic data. This make-your-own custom data engine may just give you the edge on your competition.

Voting has been closed.

Please note that ALL comments will be moderated in order to filter out spam before they appear below.

We were overwhelmed this year with the number of quality applications for our Blogging Scholarship. Instead of racking our brains trying to narrow it down to 10 finalists, we decided having 20 finalists was a better option for all those involved.

Here they are, in no particular order:

• Chris Clark
• Randall Booth
• Paul Stamatiou
• Shelley Batts
• Jess Kim
• Kambiz Kamrani
• Kimberley Klein
• Anders Ibsen
• Matthew Burden
• Karin Dalziel
• Liz Funk
• Samuel Arbesman
• Travis Addington
• Grant Brisbee
• Amanda Kern
• Shane Lavalette
• Stephanie Collins
• Sean Clark
• Thomas Peters
• Kevin Lim

Now go cast your vote!

We 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?

Billions in ‘Remittances’ Sent Back Home; Could They Cover Tuition?

If all the Hispanic students suddenly enrolled in college tomorrow, they would likely outpace enrollment for nearly every other population of student. There would also likely be economic disasters in more than one Latin American country.

Hispanic students comprise the largest group not enrolling in college. This lackluster claim to fame fuels all kinds of debate among higher education experts, especially elusive: Why?

Hispanic student statistics on high school graduation and college enrollment (2002):

• 52% graduate high school (outside GED; compare to 78% white students).
• 20% graduate prepared for college (compare to 40% white students).

Leading factors suggested for low Hispanic enrollment include:

• Low test scores and GPAs.
• Family and job responsibilities
• Language barriers
• Lack of proper college preparation/guidance
• Poverty

Education experts “mostly middle to upper income whites” tend to explain the low college enrollment rate with very canned symptoms. Most of these bypass (read ‘ignore’) a much more profound and primal cultural priority; family remittances.

Aid Sent Home Rivals Revenue of Top Corporations

Doubt the meaning of family remittances? Millions of Hispanic immigrants working in this country send money back home to impoverished family members. According to some reports the value of money sent from the U.S. each year to relatives in countries such as ‘Mexico, Brazil and Colombia,’ is nothing short of crucial foreign aid, which (alarmingly) exceeds the aid provided by the U.S. By 2010 the estimated amount of remittances annually is expected to reach $100 million, the biggest chunk of it going to Mexico.

“Remittances have benefits at all levels of Latin American economies – virtually keeping some poorer countries afloat.” (BBC)

Does Remittance Equal Dollar Value of College Tuition?

Does this mean that if the U.S. provided ample economic support to poverty-stricken Latin American countries that maybe Hispanic families could use their money to put children in college? One report says that of those Hispanic families that send money back home most send “between $100 and $200 per month.” Simple math puts this between $1200 and $2400 a year, the latter close to the cost for community college tuition, according to the national average ($2,272, College Board).

Why not just take out student loans? Another oft-ignored cultural anomaly is the perception of debt among most Hispanics. A recent survey of students’ perceptions of financial aid and debt showed that Hispanic students thought college not really worth the value and considered loss of jobs and debt high costs to pay for a college education.

Western Union’s Corporate Influence Could Sway Education Attitudes

As far as remittances go, senders rely on wire services, such as Western Union, one of the larger services. The billions of dollars that criss cross the globe everyday may also be symbolic of the fees attached to such services. A few years ago, Western Union could charge $9 for a wire transfer “which would add up to another formidable chunk of change taken from pockets that could use it for education” once again. But business is business and competitors have crashed the high fees. Now transfers cost more like $3.

WU’s Corporate Responsibility website advertises its projects in countries such as Mexico where it supports a ’sustainable job’ program. In the U.S. WU participates in the JAG program (Jobs for America’s Graduates, Inc.); a high school literacy program. And the company sponsors educational scholarships, (although I fail to find a link to an application or any detailed information). Companies such as this possess huge potential to influence their customers.

Tide Will Turn

Evidence points to changes in Hispanic college enrollment regardless of continued debate, and regardless of continued challenges: studies show Hispanic students are the largest population to attend large urban high schools, which typically denotes disadvantaged, at best. Statistics continue to show active gains in Hispanic college enrollment, the most rapid growth of all ethnic groups: enrollment has increased by 68%, with significant change for the better at four-year institutions.

Change takes time. No one is able to automatically shift cultural beliefs and norms, though we like to believe we can. The practice of family remittances proves a deep loyalty, drive, and hard-working ethic. Imagine such priorities divided equally between family and education.

What SAT Scores Reveal and the Demise of Marriageable Males

Girls, young women, there are too many of you on America’s college campuses. That is in comparison with your male counterparts. The college world has been waiting patiently for the scales to rebalance themselves, but male enrollment remains lackluster, so intervenes humankind.

Male Affirmative Action

Our report, The White Man’s Guide to Getting a Minority Scholarship, examines the possibilities for a white male qualifying for minority scholarships. It is a controversial topic, at best, and not one we take lightly.

But, what exactly has happened to the populations of males, many white, on college campuses, that continues to inspire the marginally offensive concept?

SAT Scores: Education’s Favorite Metric

Back in the mid-90s legal action against College Board and Educational Testing Service served to correct what educational experts had alleged for years “that the PSAT, the test that makes high school students eligible for National Merit Scholarships” was designed to appeal more to males than to females. The corrected test was designed with a writing component, which seemed to offer an equitable correction.

It’s been understood for decades that females perform better in the classroom than males, but on tests the opposite was true. In 1995, based on university research, the following SAT truths were proven:

“The SAT falls far short of its sole advertised claim — the accurate prediction of first year college grades — by consistently underestimating the academic performance of females.”

So college admissions systems based on test scores of course tended to favor males.

Why the Shortage of Males on Campus, though?

Current research suggests that because girls “from all backgrounds” adapt more readily to classroom environments many are quite prepared for college when it rolls around. Secondary school systems lag alarmingly behind in proper college preparation. But if females can keep up, it may just be a symptom of Education’s bigger ill that a larger percentage of males than in the past are not making it to college, a problem that is complicated even more because it apparently cuts across all other demographics.

Does the SAT continue to influence college demographics? Here’s a basic comparison test. Consider:

• Males tend to score higher on the math portion of the SAT.
• Females tend to score higher on the reading portion of the SAT.
• Given an average math SAT score and an average reading SAT score from a college campus, how closely do the scores reflect the gender demographics of the campus?

Armed with statistics on average math and reading SAT scores from almost any college campus in the U.S., I chose a few colleges with scores significantly higher in both categories and a few with scores relatively even. My questions: in cases where math scores far outpace reading scores will I find a larger population of males on campus, and when the scores in reading are significantly higher will I find more females? At the same time, when SAT averages for both categories are somewhat even will the gender demographics be also fairly split?

A couple of obvious choices:

• Sweet Briar College (women’s college); math: 548, reading: 586
• Hampden-Sydney College (men’s college); math: 573, reading: 571

• Bowdoin College; math: 690, reading: 690; 577 males, 655 females.
• Carnegie Mellon University; math: 718, reading: 657; 60% male, 40% female (CMU admits more women to try and balance its heavy engineering and comp sci degree programs)
• College of the Atlantic; math: 586, reading: 624; 55 males, 133 females (very small college enrollment)
• Evergreen State College; math: 539, reading: 587; 25% males, 75% females.
• Lafayette College; math: 665, reading: 620– 1,095 males, 1,051 females
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology; math: 755, reading: 712; 44% females (undergrad)
• Ohio Wesleyan University; math: 605, reading: 606– 1,111 males, 1,076 females.
• Reed College; math: 661, reading: 698– 55% female and a strong Humanities curriculum.

Drive for Balanced Campuses: Better Social Life and the Fear of a Diminishing Educated (Nubile) Male Population

For the most part the above SAT scores are indicative of the demographics, but a more telling statistic may be the comparison between the numbers of male and female applicants at any one institution versus those actually chosen for admission. This is likely where major turns of the screw occur. While the debate seems focused on ‘gender parity’, a much murkier, and at times sophomoric, rationale is at work: for example, the unspoken fear that the decreasing population of male students will translate into a less educated, less marriageable male population for their well-educated female counterparts.

• At MIT females face a much easier time of admission over 7,000 males apply annually, compared with over 2,000 females, but the ratio of those actually admitted is 758 males : 736 females.

• At Lafayette College, the formerly male student body has emphasized female enrollment and now is close to gender parity. Nearly 800 more male applicants than female are considered annually, but enrollment is almost balanced.

• The College of William and Mary is one that has made headlines in the last few years for its high rejection rate for women. Men have a much easier time with admissions: over 2,000 more applications from females are received annually, in comparison to males, but the ratio of students admitted is 1,596 male : 1,696 female.

The William and Mary syndrome has become the way of admissions at many smaller, private schools.

Why is it that we always want to fix things?

Some conservative pundits think that favoritism in college admissions is perfectly fine “we just must be upfront about it.” I’m a bigot & that’s okay, because I’m being honest about it. The Admitting-it-Makes-it-Okay Theory. Hmmmm.

Do we really have that much of a problem just enrolling students based on the merit of their applications and interests? What are the roadblocks to unbiased college admissions? What trips us up and makes us favor one type of student over another? And what, pray tell, keeps some admissions officers up at night fearful of a less than worthy male (viable mate) population?

I wonder when the education ecosystem, unnaturally manipulated, might begin to exhibit signs of a new kind of stress.