Past National Merit Finalists

Opie_ofMaybery2
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:52:02 +0000

“I again persuaded her to turn it down before she decided not to enroll there”

Well, just maybe if you thought about it a bit, this post was about people whom unlike yourself…need that extra merit boost. It’s about families that would like to enroll in one of those 40-50k a year schools. but make too much for need basis, but not enough to really afford that leap.

I mean it’s fantastic that you can afford to turn down scholarships, it truly is. However, I don’t think the original poster, nor myself or many other families are in that boat. The schools that offer merit awards are of interest, especially those that would be finanically out of the question otherwise.

{In general}
So it gets back to my orginal point about coming onto a post like this to tell everyone how you didn’t “need” scholarhsips. That’s where the bully for you comes from. How is making “I didn’t need…” statements helpful to somebody who “needs”?

How is calling somebody’s choice of school and scholarship “second tier” nice? Especially when maybe their family situation would prevent them from even attending that “second tier” school without help? Maybe to that family it’s a blessing?

Both my kids benefited from merit awards and those awards have allowed them to attend small VERY expensive LAC’s and get a great education that honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to afford. Coming up with more than a quarter mil, inside a five year window isn’t something the average family can afford. So getting merit awards and other scholarships were gladly accepted and apprieciated by our family. We weren’t in a position to look down our nose at these offers.

As far as second, third or fourth tier schools. The one that just finished is now in med school. I guess the tier didn’t get in the way. Again college is what the student makes of it, a top “tier” is not a guarantee of anything if the student doesn’t work. It still comes back to the individual.

As every doctor ( around 2 dozen) told my son talked to about the top medical schools?..“what’s the best medical school?” “The one that takes you.”