<p>Cross-posted , marite.</p>
<p>Public college education in Georgia is nearly free for B students thanks to the lottery/sin funded Hope Scholarship Program. Parents have to pay room and board but in today’s job market that would be needed with or without higher education.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is a top 50 ranked national university.U.Georgia is top 60. Both are sure to move up with the flood of financially disadvantaged middle class students choosing them over more pricey private schools.</p>
<p>Let’s legalize marijauna an tax it to pay for free college for everyone that can maintain a B average in the presence of legal dope. This seems to me to be very moral and Darwinian.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions,
There are great Jewish athletes, especially in swimming. I have even known some Jewish college football and basketball players. Of course the tend to “ride the pine” and then go to medical or dental school. LOL</p>
<p>^^^^ Huh?? Yes, GA is quite afforadable thanks to the $$ funded from the sale of lottery tickets. The students have to be able to maintain their B average in order to keep the scholarship, and some have trouble doing so, especially at Tech, and lose their scholarship. Buying lottery tickets is a waste of money, but hardly a sin, and many benefit from this program. </p>
<p>The big bru-ha-ha was the suggestion tht they open a casino in downtown Atlanta. That wont fly. But I give them credit for trying ot breathe life into the downtown area. Unfortunately not the breath people want.</p>
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<p>My three all went to private schools with very small counselor/student ratios and most kids were from well off families. Still, in the questionnaire they sent parents as the process was starting, financial aid was prominent. Many do not want to, or can not, shell out the $50K plus. There were many kids from these families who chose merit aid schools.</p>
<p>Many of you have been around here much longer than I have so I’m still shocked by how many kids applied to colleges they could not afford and are on these boards bashing the colleges.</p>
<p>P3T, LOL. </p>
<p>I have to share with you, though, that I was catching up with an old friend that I hadn’t seen for awhile the other day, and she told me her son was recruited for soccer by several prestigious East Coast schools, and got a full ride (to a State U) to play soccer!</p>
<p>I was thinking, OMG, sometimes a kid really does get a scholarship! What’s interesting is that he picked State U over Brown and Duke (no, I don’t think it was financial, I’m pretty sure his parents would have tried to make it work for him had he wanted to go to the east coast) – my world IRL is so not like the world here on CC . . .</p>
<p>Not to get off topic too much, but [Taylor</a> Mays](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Mays]Taylor”>Taylor Mays - Wikipedia), consensus first-team all-american and probably the best player on the USC Football team this year (and that’s saying something!) is jewish :)</p>
<p>The kid said she was okay with going to CSULB. Where’s the entitlement in that?</p>
<p>Completely OT, but just in the last summer Olympics the following Jews got medals: </p>
<p>Jason Lezak (swimming)
Garrett-Weber Gale (swimming)
Dara Torres (swimming)
Sada Jacobson (fencing)
Shahar Zubari (windsurfing)</p>
<p>…better than praying for miracles?</p>
<p>It would be interesting to scientifically evaluate the effect of prayer on athletic performance.</p>
<p>Better than the effect of prayer on college financial aid? :)</p>
<p>Hi, everyone. This may seem underhanded, but it was never deliberately so. I merely deduced in retrospect that my having discussed ahead of time with one D what we could not afford (and would undoubtedly not be aided by particular colleges of desire/interest) seemed to have subconsciously affected the quality and timing of her application to those ones. She ended up not being accepted to those colleges, which could have been coincidental or could have reflected the conflict between desire & reality.</p>
<p>I know I’m not alone, because I’ve heard similarly from other parents: “She/he didn’t do that good a job on the app, but then again S/D knew it was beyond our ability to pay.”</p>
<p>I clarified what the plaque says that I mentined above. I was close. It says “as long as teachers give tests there will be prayer in school”. </p>
<p>And agreed, there are jewish athletes. Wiki has a list of notable ones. Its just, unfortunately, not a super long list. [List</a> of Jewish American sportspeople - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_American_sportspeople]List”>List of Jewish American sportspeople - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Our sons’ school has a lot of Jewish students. It is also very active in sports. Many of the kids do want to continue to play in college, but the vast majority of those who do from there do so at D-3 colleges or play intramural of clubs. The % of kids going on to college sports is very, very small across the board. Also there are no lists that I know of that track college sports participation by religion. There may not be that many Jewish student that reach the highest echelons of sports like the pro teams or Olympics, but if you look at college sports, I think there is a good representation especially if you include sports outside of the big main ones.</p>
<p>Unfortunately??</p>
<p>The point is not how many of some elite achievement group comes from a particular ethnic/religious background but whether there are any significant barriers to or limits on that ethnicity’s participation and chances to accomplish.</p>
<p>On applying to schools parents can’t afford…Some students think that if they get in they will (or will have already won) win some private scholarship money that will help with the bills and some will. However, for many, by the time they have written their
50th essay for applications and have maintained their grades in their overwhelming course load, they just don’t have the energy to continue with the private scholarship search. If they do continue with the scholarship search, there is no guarantee they will win any and many of them don’t notify you until well past May 1.</p>
<p>Lets not take this thread in the “race/gender” downslide that is a sure thread-killer. The amusement about jesish athletes is jsut that-- we aren’t known for our athletic prowess or handyman skills. Is it stereotypic? Sure. But its taken lightly and in jest-- not meant to be some battle over genetics and/or barriers. Please don’t go there.</p>
<p>The chances of getting a big private scholarship are very small. Most of the money for college come from the college itself through merit programs and financial aid. </p>
<p>I think kids should always regard the unaffordable, highly selective schools as lottery tickets, and understand that the affordable school that are likely to accept them are where they will probably attend, and choose those schools accordingly. Instead I see kids focused on the least likely schools for them as pipe dreams and reluctantly randomly tacking on a safety choice at parents’ or counselors’ insistence.</p>
<p>jm626,</p>
<p>I am from an ethnic group that enjoys confrontation and conflict. You are atempting to suppress my cultural heritage by demanding that I be nice.</p>
<p>I think all private scholarships, including National Merit, have gotten a lot smaller relative to COA during this latest 30 years.</p>
<p>My 1960’s corporate sponsored NM grant was a full free ride to my state flagship and covered half an Ivy. It was actually a better financial deal than an athletic-grant-in-aid, i.e. “scholarship” at the state school.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions–our area is huge on sports too, and so many families seem to think as you said (‘soccer scholarships!’ regardless of the fact that there are probably 5 million kids kicking soccer balls around US suburban rec fields). It’s a huge time drain (sports camps, individual sports coaching, multiple practices per week, etc.). </p>
<p>I can see it if (as one mom said to me yesterday) it’s viewed as a way to keep kids busy & out of trouble!(& learn teamwork). But the whole: "if we spend thousands of hours & dollars on sports my kid will go to college for free’ is not entirely realistic. But, that could just be because I’m not very sporty, lol. :-)</p>
<p>We never did sports with the idea our son would even play in college, let alone that it would be helpful to his getting in. As I always say, invest in the future and buy a good helmet!</p>
<p>This said, I do think there is a level of commitment to sports and as captain of two sports, it has taught him huge leadership, resiliency and a lot about good sportsmanship and character. Are there other EC’s that could do the same? Yes. Would he have been as successful? Who knows because he didn’t do that. Our daughter (now a rising sophomore) is an editor for the school paper and also plays two sports. She may never be the captain,but she is MUCH more into volunteering her time. Her interests will “grow the child” in other ways. And that’s the goal… growing the child. Not doing it for them or making them do things so it looks good on a resume. I honestly believe the most competitive schools don’t take well to slick packaged kids. That’s the advice of our guidance office and it seems to bear out in number and quality of acceptances.</p>
<p>While I think all parents need to be reasonable and realistic about what they can and can’t afford. Had I not been paying attention the last 30 years, would I guess that tuition at private colleges is no where near the 9K a year it was when I went to school. It really does boggle the mind to the point where even in state schools become an impossible situation for many. I applaud the first generation college student whose parents know very little (if anyting about the process) getting that full ride vs my luke warm feelings for the middle class whose family yuks it up because they have managed to qualify and get a great deal of aid. The problem of course is that if you don’t have the middle, you dont exactly have diversity. Two distinct groups will say like oil and water. You need a little balsamic to keep the whole thing blended.</p>