<p>Well, the very best and most selective colleges in the United States do not give merit aid at all. They are need blind in admissions and guarantee to meet full need of all accepted students (this includes the service academies). It’s quite possible for an okay but not stellar student to get a lot of merit aid at a college with lower admissions standards, while a better student with a richer family would get no scholarships at all at a meets-need school. I don’t see why a high school awards ceremony is the place to acknowledge that. Getting a scholarship or merit award on its own is nice but it’s not necessarily a sign of great academic distinction absent the competitive context in which it was given.</p>
<p>I have to say our high school graduation was very balanced. Both academics, sports and the arts were mention with the general accomplishments of the students – number of national merit finalists, sports championships, school rank within our county and the state. The top 10 students by gpa walked in first, sat in the front row and were called off in order of gpa to receive their diplomas.</p>
<p>As far as scholarships go, those are done at an Awards ceremony a few weeks earlier. I did find it interesting that only a couple of the scholarships went to the top 10 students or those with a greater than 4.0 gpa. Most of these scholarships were local and for $250 to $1000. They usually required an essay and some had financial need as a requirement. The Top 10 students were still working on all that AP homework and didn’t have time to fill out the applications.</p>
<p>A school newspaper is sent home that lists where students are attending college.</p>
<p>Our graduation really ONLY gives any kudos to academic achievement. The Val & Sal are recognized and speak. There are marks in the program for honor graduate and National Honor Society, and that’s it. We have awards night for all the rest. Athletics Awards Night, Choir Awards Night, Band Awards Night, FFA Awards Night, etc. And on Senior Awards Night local scholarships are awarded, military scholarships are awarded, and seniors are recognized for university scholarships or others they may have received.</p>
<p>Around here at least the congratulation ceremonies are separate. High school graduation should celebrate high school graduation as the accomplishment. All by itself. Some moments deserve to be about that moment. Not the separate futures but the collective accomplishment everyone there has achieved. Carry on</p>
<p>I don’t know why the topic hear asked about “our” priorities, what was being discussed does not happen. No one is signaled out for any honers, other than the valecdorian makes a speech. We have separate Senior Nights and Sports Nights.</p>
<p>I agree that the grad ceremony is not the time for going through the ECs and other such accomplishments. I like what a number of schools do, in having their honor student wear a special ribbon or something in recognition, and/or having a “graduating with honors” category with asteriks so noted for such students.</p>
<p>I also agree that the graduation ceremony is not the time or place to go through any accomplishment other than perhaps acknowledging the senior scholars or top 10% of whatever the school calls it. And then, it should only be a brief introduction and the names. Most schools these days have an senior assembly to announce all the top athletic achievements, the military acknowledgements, scholarships etc. </p>
<p>Our high school does what cpt’s high school does and the kids were colored tassels, different colors for different academic achievements and the colors are in the program with the meaning. They roughly line up with magna, summa, cum laude, and there is a color for NHS. The senior scholars are named based on a formula that includes ACT scores, and they have their own color…all are either magna with a couple summas sometimes. But the graduation ceremony would be long indeed if they ‘introduced’ all these kids.</p>
<p>D graduated yesterday. As salutatorian, she’d already given her speech at Class Day, the academic awards ceremony two days before. Her name and awards were printed in the commencement program, along with those of the other award winners, and she did get to wear a stole with “Salutatorian” written on it (kind of dorky, but of course we were proud–she was more proud of the stunning dress she wore underneath, so whipped off the robe and stole at the first possible moment!). There was no need to say the awards out loud. </p>
<p>The merit scholarships were printed in the program and stated aloud (probably as encouragement to families with younger siblings), but as NJSue stated, the kids going to the more selective colleges didn’t get merit scholarships, so their names were not read.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to keep the ceremony as brief as possible so that the important stuff–speeches, awarding of diplomas–don’t become tedious.</p>
<p>Our HS does not have a separate awards night. The focus at graduation is on all students. Val/Sal each give a brief speech. Class VP gives opening remards (brief) and Class Pres. gives closing remarks (again brief). As students go up, they are only called by name, but as they walk across stage – shaking about 5 different folks hands – their senior picture is flashed on large screen with their name, post grad plans (name of college, or workforce, or branch of service, or undecided, etc.), and a list of any scholarships they have received (name only). It moves along pretty quickly and definitely beats several years ago when they verbally stated all this info – took way too long and you couldn’t hear most of it anyway.</p>
<p>“Well, the very best and most selective colleges in the United States do not give merit aid at all. They are need blind in admissions and guarantee to meet full need of all accepted students (this includes the service academies).”</p>
<p>The problem is there are few such schools, with enough seats to accommodate about 0% of HS graduates. (And these schools don’t need to bribe students into attending.)</p>
<p>Apologies for my stupidity and missing the point but I’ll reiterate it:</p>
<p>The OP expressed a wish that institutional merit scholarships be announced at high school ceremonies as an acknowledgement of academic achievement. As merit scholarships on their own, without any context, really don’t necessarily indicate great academic achievement, I disputed the appropriateness of spending the public’s time at such an event by recognizing them. For example, where I live, there are several children who could have gotten big merit at low-ranked colleges but went to higher ranked places either as full-pay or on need-based financial aid. They are excellent students with outstanding grades and high scores, and would have been passed over for recognition at a ceremony that focused on institutional merit awards. Meanwhile, the B+ average kid with OK stats is feted for getting a half-tuition “merit” award at local U. That makes no sense to me and it wastes everyone’s time. It hardly recognizes academic achievement.</p>
<p>I don’t see any merit in announcing any type of scholarships at high school graduation. I think high school graduation should be about all the graduates accomplishing high school graduation and nothing else.</p>
<p>As for the idea that the 0% admit schools don’t ‘bribe’ people to attend their schools? The facts are clear. They want the middle class students and they offer financial aid to almost every student who might find it even a slight hardship to pay.</p>
<p>No school needs to bribe anybody. I object to the word “bribe,” as I find it offensive to the students who are offered those merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Ok, sorry about bribe. The schools are just offering more money than they compute that you’d need, in order to convince you to attend, rather than your choosing another school that offers only the amount that you’d need. ;)</p>
<p>yeah, it’s market forces. One school is worth more than another. But, it’s not like they are bribing you to drive a Honda instead of a Ford truck.</p>