After a 3 hour awards presentation last night, I do have to admit that I am a bit disappointed. Since as long as I can remember, a class valedictorian always had a standing scholarship offer to attend, free of charge, any state college. Apparently, this program was disposed of last year.
Of the nearly half dozen graduating students who had a 4.0 GPA, my daughter had the highest SAT/ACT scores, the participated in the most sports, was the team captain on two teams, personally ran 3 public service programs which were wildly successful and literally did score out as #1 of the 4.0 students. That did make me proud, obviously.
However, as to not diminish the success of the other 4.0 students, none of this was mentioned. That seemed almost too much like a "T" ball team where they don't keep score, whatever. The part that got to me was how scholarships were handed out. Every single free ride scholarship awarded went to students with GPA's between 3.1 and 3.6 who all had lower SAT or ACT scores than my daughter and were not involved in as many community or school activities. I don't get it.
I'm still every bit as proud of my daughter as before. However, it sent a resounding message to the underclass students there that there was no need to work as hard to try to attain a perfect 4.0 GPA. The 'payout' was higher for students with lower averages. They did have 4 full ride scholarships for Latino students and 10 full ride scholarships for African American students. Isn't that racism? I knew several of the recipients and were happy for them, but it still rang loudly of impropriety.
My daughter's scholarships consisted of a $2000 scholarship for winning a competition in medical terminology and testing for students planning on a career in the medical field and an $8000 total scholarship (2k per year) for being a valedictorian going to IU. I do believe 2k of that was due to her having the highest SAT/ACT scores. Other valedictorians going to IU only received 6k total scholarship money. I know one family who may not be able to afford to send their child to IU because she didn't receive enough scholarship money.
This is more of a surprised observation than complaint. I have been used to seeing the brightest students competing fiercely to be on top to gain entrance to the best colleges and win scholarships. Not one single student, valedictorian or not, was accepted into Princeton, Harvard, Yale or even Duke. I'm fortunate enough to be able to take care of my daughter. Other students had their dreams shattered by this "new criteria" for admittance and scholarships. This is really sad for them and concerns me as to what type of physicians and attorneys our colleges will be turning out in the next 5 to 10 years. I'm glad my daughter who will be a junior next year didn't attend. She is carrying a 4.0 GPA as well along with doing all of the extra curricular work as traditionally weighed in considering acceptance into elite colleges. She plans to be an attorney. I'm still going to bribe her with money for 4.0 report cards and a brand new car if she graduates tops in her class.
I haven't figured out this 'new' system yet, but topically it seems unfair and there was a surprising amount of loud grumbling and "what the hell" comments from the audience. I wonder if other high schools had similar rewards ceremonies. The parents who rode with us and sat next to us were crushed and are going to start today to find out how much they can get on a home equity loan for their daughter besides having their daughter apply for all the student loans she can get.
*edit* My wife just called me and we are to go back to the school this morning for more of an explanation of how scholarships etc. were chosen. I'm not really sure I want to go. Nothing is going to change, but they must have been bombarded with parents like the ones who rode with us.