<p>I just got back from NYC and saw In the Heights which I thought was downright terrific…great music and dancing, wonderful performing.</p>
<p>But I gotta ask here…one of the main themes of this story is about a young Hispanic girl who loses her scholarship to STANFORD because her grades slip below the threshold for the cutoff…ahem…Stanford does not give MERIT aid. Didn’t anyone check this before they wrote it into this script? Maybe I missed something…the parents sell their business and she returns to Stanford the following fall…(after the play ends). Well if she was able to return to Stanford…her aid would have still been in place as all aid there is need based aid.</p>
<p>I thought it was odd…I guess that writer (from Wesleyan) doesn’t read CC.</p>
<p>Ha ha, only a CCer would think of that!! :D</p>
<p>I also thought ITH was great and it happens to be a show that my MT kid is infatuated with! Lin Manual Miranda is an idol as she’d like to be just like him (by the way, she found herself sitting right next to him at another show once but said nothing to him!). But he first starting writing/composing ITH when a student at Wesleyan and his show went through the stages to get to Bdway and he starred in it (I saw it with him but he is not in it now). My D also wrote a musical in college and it is now going to the next level (she also plays a lead in it) and in fact, the Tony winning musical director of ITH was asked to be the musical director of my D’s show, and he really likes her show and music and considered it but can’t fit it in now as he is working on the ITH movie! My D should only be half as fortunate as Miranda. I’m glad you saw the show. But I guess the scholarship storyline doesn’t make sense, LOL.</p>
<p>Saw it last summer and I said the same thing. Her aid would have been need-based but then it wasn’t enough? But once her parents sell the business, and thus have more money, she can go back?</p>
<p>With that said, LOVED the show. We’re making a road trip down to Austin to see the touring company in two weeks!</p>
<p>I’m waiting for “CollegeConfidential–The Musical” to hit Broadway. I heard it’s mostly razzle-dazzle show tunes about the U.S. News rankings, with more somber subplots about affirmative action and financial aid. The producer is an Ivy Leaguer, and he’s demanding that there be separate bathrooms for those audience members who went to private colleges and for those who went to public colleges. He’s making sure that the rest rooms for the public college alumni are staffed with attendants who will explain how to use the facilities, and show the patrons what the soap is for.</p>
<p>thumper1, you had great forebearance not to jump up in the middle of the show to protest! </p>
<p>My H once embarassed S-2 by attending Passion of the Christ with him and pointing out (too loudly, I think) that a word in Aramaic was translated wrong in the captions. Nobody else minded but these small issues of authenticity really undercut your ability to suspend disbelief in the theater!</p>
<p>How far down did the character’s grades slip? </p>
<p>I don’t know Stanford’s specific policies are – but my d’s need-based grant aid at her college (also a need only school), did require her to maintain a 2.0 GPA. I assume that if a student falls below a 2.0 they go on academic probation and have a semester to clean up their act, and if not they are probably kicked out of school – that is, I think the financial aid minimum pretty much coincides with regular academic standards. </p>
<p>I’d note that federal financial aid requires satisfactory progress toward a degree - you can’t be racking up a bunch of F’s and incompletes and maintain eligibility for Pell grants and the like over time. </p>
<p>So while I don’t know the play… it probably is possible to simultaneously lose one’s need-based financial aid and flunk out of many colleges.</p>
<p>Well of course, that DOES make sense… she may have said something about academic probation too…they didn’t say her grades, only that she had to "work two jobs to afford the books she didn’t have time to read "… …the part that didn’t feel right was the parents selling their business so she could go back.</p>
<p>OK, well as I said I am not familiar with the play… and the whole thing is fiction anyway… but the character would not be the first person in history to give her parents and friends an incomplete & inaccurate account of the exact reasons for quitting college. </p>
<p>(In other words, in real life I’ve heard a few whoppers along the way, including some rather iffy stories about academic scholarships at need-only colleges)</p>
<p>For those of you who haven’t seen In the Heights (which I think is wonderful) on Broadway, just letting you know that there is a National Tour AND a movie musical of it is coming up!</p>
<p>Actually, the part I had trouble with was the implication that Stanford would have let a struggling freshman just wither away and drop out without providing any support. I attended Stanford and the resources are there for every student to succeed. It is no accident that Stanford has one of the highest graduation rates in the country. If she had a problem, she didn’t need to “come home,” as one song suggests. She would have received direct and personal guidance from her resident assistant, resident fellow, guidance counselor, and even the fabulous Julie Lythcott-Haims, the current Dean of Freshman Students. Thats one of the advantages of attending a relatively small private school like Stanford. It’s not as easy to get lost in the crowd.</p>
<p>Sure, it wasn’t an accurate depiction of Stanford, but it was just a musical. Stanford has become the chosen school to be depicted incorrectly in fictional works just like HPY long have been incorrectly depicted. The positive of Stanford’s being the college chosen to be the main character’s college in the Heights is that probably as a result more low income and Hispanic applicants will aspire to attending there. That fictional character will become a role model.</p>
<p>Yesterday H and D were watching Jurrasic Park. Husband kept going on about how the scene where the guy loses his glasses and is talking to himself was so unrealistic…D finally said, “and what about the part where the dinosaurs are alive…???”</p>
<p>I do often wonder how script writers who actually went to college can make so many mistakes about things that relate to college. Like that episode of House where the kid gets sick taking the AP Calc exam, but it’s winter…I guess the writer of that episode never actually took an AP exam, so he wouldn’t know that they give them in May.</p>
<p>I saw In the Heights and thought the same thing about Stanford.</p>
<p>Law and Order and Gossip Girl are both repeat offenders in the unrealistic college depiction department.</p>
<p>On the other hand, although the musical was well-written and well-acted, I thought that it was my least favorite musical I have seen (out of maybe 10-12 Broadway musicals). It was definitely not at all my cup of tea.</p>
<p>Years ago I embarrassed my daughters during one of the early scenes (perhaps opening credits) of The Lion King movie when they showed a line of leaf-cutter ants carrying their loads along a tree branch. I blurted out “Wrong continent! Leaf-cutter ants are found in South America, not Africa!”</p>
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