<p>After some searching, I found this descripton of the Singletary scholarship from last year: <a href=“http://uknow.uky.edu/content/greatest-young-minds-campus[/url]”>http://uknow.uky.edu/content/greatest-young-minds-campus</a>. It sounds as though the scholarship has a significant service component. So the mother could well have meant to say something like, “My friend is on the committee, and she and I agreed my child has the necessary qualifications.” To think otherwise shows an uncharitable spirit.</p>
<p>Unlike the Patterson, the Singletary requires a combination of academic and service. So a scholar with “better” grades and test scores might not get the nod for an interview, if others have more service. Some people regard athletic competition to be a source of leadership. A football team captain with qualifying grades and test scores is more likely to get an interview appointment than a student who has already qualified for an equivalent academic scholarship.</p>
<p>You child was likely never in the running for the scholarship because he already qualified for the Patterson. Merit scholarships are a method for colleges to attract a more interesting student body. The qualifications for such a student body are * not only academic.* The university wants to enroll all three children, and many more as well.</p>
<p>On a realistic note, if you spoke several weeks before the scholarship was announced to the public, the decisions were already made. At many schools, if a student receives any award, parents get a call beforehand, so they will have time to make arrangements to attend the ceremony. High schools need to be notified, letters have to go out, financial aid departments need to be notified of scholarship awards so that monies freed up by the award can be used for awards for other students. If the committee member knew the staff members were about to call familiess, she may have felt there was no harm in giving a hint to the decision.</p>
<p>Another way to look at this kind of thing is that people who brag or embellish can do so to cover up feelings of insecurity and possibly shame. I once heard someone brag about their student’s merit scholarship, but this person was not aware that I knew the family was having financial issues, something they did not want to be public and it was not my place to say anything at all. The student was also an excellent student, and may have gotten a merit scholarship, but the embellishing the merit aspect may have been a cover for getting need based aid. </p>
<p>I also know of a low income student who didn’t apply for a scholarship which came with group mentoring. She has a strong sense of pride and self sufficiency and didn’t want to be openly identified as a student with financial need. This was particularly frustrating for me because it came with many benefits that I wished for her and I knew she was a great candidate for it. Not being a family member, all I could do was suggest it, and let the family decide. </p>
<p>I think it is sometimes very hard on a family to have to reveal financial needs to a college, even if it is confidential.</p>
<p>“An uncharitable spirit”? Come on. I agree that OP hasn’t given us enough information to say for sure that the kid was undeserving (all we know is that he plays football, has a reasonably high ACT score, and isn’t as good a student as OP’s son and the other kid), but if you’re going to announce publicly that you know a board member who promised to vote for your kid, then yes, people are going to wonder if perhaps there was preferential treatment. And checking your link, the Singletary is referred to as an “academic” scholarship, and a pretty prestigious one at that.</p>
<p>Sure, there are always other possibilities. I don’t think there’s any great virtue in pretending not to have considered one fairly obvious one - or in self-censoring to the point where you are truly incapable of making the reasonable inference. </p>
<p>I do think that OP should have refrained from giving so much identifying information; if I wanted to, I’m pretty sure I could figure out the names of the kids involved, and I don’t live anywhere near Kentucky. </p>
<p>Apprenticeprof, there’s a great difference between venting to one’s husband and venting to CC. This is hearsay. It sounds to me as if the OP doesn’t like the woman she’s complaining about. Fine. That’s her right. However, she did not witness the conversation between Mother #3 and the committee member, so she has no idea if the committe member said, “I’m voting for your son,” or politely fobbed Mom #3 off with, “your son is an impressive student.” If she liked #3, she wouldn’t be so quick to decide “the fix is in.” It’s uncharitable not to admit that other students have merit, and to conclude someone she doesn’t know would choose an unqualified kid. By the way, if the OP’s disdain for #3 came across to the other mother in conversation, I wouldn’t be surprised if the other mother didn’t exaggerate her son’s chances just to annoy the OP.</p>
<p>The Singletary scholars are required to take a course on community service. It’s not merely academic. As the article states,
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<p>As a comparison, the Rhodes is also an academic scholarship, but physical prowess and moral character are qualities that committee is bound to judge as well. </p>
<p>Periwinkle, I did try to quote exactly what the mother of #3 told me. By the way; if it matters she interrupted a conversation I was having with another parent that was not about scholarships whatsoever. I will be honest and say I do not like her and here is why if it matters: My child won a senior superlative. We went to photography studio to get pic made for yearbook. This lady (mom of #3) is yearbook sponsor. She says to me and my child "Congrats on winning Most _____. Did you know that you (looking at my child) also won Most Likely to Succeed? However we made a new rule this year and a student can only win one senior superlative. So we gave Most Likely to Succeed to the person with the next most votes, (her child, what a coincidence). We could have gone the rest of our lives without knowing this. Is that uncharitable? </p>