High school juniors take the SAT (formerly called the Scholastic Assessment Test) in Clemson, South Carolina. The test is designed to assess math and verbal abilities and is required of applicants to most colleges in the United States. Mary Ann Chastain/AP/Wide World PhotosThe Official SAT Question of the Day™
A florist buys roses at $0.50 apiece and sells them for $1.00 apiece. If there are no other expenses, how many roses must be sold in order to make a profit of $300?
a)100 b)150 c)200 d)300 e)600
I know my griping about the Community Foundation Scholarship sounds like sour grapes. I admit that I have bitten into some of those unripe fruit of the vine from time to time. So this is my sour grapes disclaimer. OK, that being said, it is a good thing to have these fabulous scholarships available.
There are interesting social implications and unforeseen consequences that make a critical examination of the scholarships worthwhile. My last blog, Problems with Merit talked about potential pressures within the High School academic community to cheat, perhaps in ways destructive to other students, to win this huge prize. I don’t believe that this is an exaggeration. It is human nature to consciously or subconsciously favor your children, relatives and members of your social class. In any case I am certain that my readers can relate stories of their own about favoritism in the classroom. In keeping with my earlier theme of class and caste, I think it is obvious that this prize favors the middle class and could even encourage further middle class favoritism in the school.
Mind you, I don’t know the name of even one person on this scholarship selection committee. But there isn’t really a broad choice available. Ideally you would want wealthy philanthropists, university administrators, an African American activist, and some up and coming entrepreneurs. In other words, if this money is aimed at the middle class, you don’t want middle class people making the decision. They are too close to the spoils. In this case the Lilly Foundation represents the very wealthy philanthropist tossing a nice bone to the middle class. I suppose the Lilly foundation envisions the local upper crust properly representing the Lilly's intent, in other words, rich people granting a nice prize to some smart middle class kids. Here in Starke County the upper crust is very thin. The factory owners live elsewhere. There is no university, African American activists, or wealthy philanthropists. There is the odd rich farmer, and wealthy merchant. But mostly the pool for the selection committee is the usual upper middle class professions: lawyers, doctors, and teachers. They are very close to the potential recipients in many ways. I think too close. Certainly this isn’t a case of the rich handing out a prize to the middle class.
Of course I have a suggestion. Make the Community Foundation Lilly Scholarship a pure merit prize based entirely on objective criteria. A simple solution would be SAT scores. Everybody is equal: boys, girls, Knox students, and home-schoolers, even dropouts. Do you know that some really bright students are happily accepted to university without a high school diploma? No student would have reason to believe that they would be at any disadvantage due to coming from a “bad” family or having a powerful enemy. The only down side would be if more than 2 or 3 students had perfect SAT scores. But wouldn’t that be a great problem to have!
There are interesting social implications and unforeseen consequences that make a critical examination of the scholarships worthwhile. My last blog, Problems with Merit talked about potential pressures within the High School academic community to cheat, perhaps in ways destructive to other students, to win this huge prize. I don’t believe that this is an exaggeration. It is human nature to consciously or subconsciously favor your children, relatives and members of your social class. In any case I am certain that my readers can relate stories of their own about favoritism in the classroom. In keeping with my earlier theme of class and caste, I think it is obvious that this prize favors the middle class and could even encourage further middle class favoritism in the school.
Mind you, I don’t know the name of even one person on this scholarship selection committee. But there isn’t really a broad choice available. Ideally you would want wealthy philanthropists, university administrators, an African American activist, and some up and coming entrepreneurs. In other words, if this money is aimed at the middle class, you don’t want middle class people making the decision. They are too close to the spoils. In this case the Lilly Foundation represents the very wealthy philanthropist tossing a nice bone to the middle class. I suppose the Lilly foundation envisions the local upper crust properly representing the Lilly's intent, in other words, rich people granting a nice prize to some smart middle class kids. Here in Starke County the upper crust is very thin. The factory owners live elsewhere. There is no university, African American activists, or wealthy philanthropists. There is the odd rich farmer, and wealthy merchant. But mostly the pool for the selection committee is the usual upper middle class professions: lawyers, doctors, and teachers. They are very close to the potential recipients in many ways. I think too close. Certainly this isn’t a case of the rich handing out a prize to the middle class.
Of course I have a suggestion. Make the Community Foundation Lilly Scholarship a pure merit prize based entirely on objective criteria. A simple solution would be SAT scores. Everybody is equal: boys, girls, Knox students, and home-schoolers, even dropouts. Do you know that some really bright students are happily accepted to university without a high school diploma? No student would have reason to believe that they would be at any disadvantage due to coming from a “bad” family or having a powerful enemy. The only down side would be if more than 2 or 3 students had perfect SAT scores. But wouldn’t that be a great problem to have!
3 comments:
In an interesting comment to my earlier blog, Problems with Merit, a reader pointed out that National Merit Scholars from Starke County have historically been shortchanged in the awarding of this scholarship. I think that National Merit Scholars should be given very high consideration. Bear in mind that this award is very closly related to the SAT. The National Merit Scholars are awarded on the basis of the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
I feel I must clarify some of the statements you have made in your blogs concerning the Lilly Scholarship. It pays full tuition as well as money for books per year, but not a dime is given for room and board or any other expenses. At MOST, a student who attends Notre Dame (one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive school in the state) will receive about 140, 000 for four years There may not be a difference between the actual numbers and your numbers, but 35, 000 is 35, 000. This price also depends on where the student lives. If someone stayed at a sorority or fraternity, it could be considerably less than 140, 000! (Source: Notre Dame Tuition Website) Some schools give the student who receives a Lilly Scholarship another scholarship that pays for their room and board. Notre Dame does not pay room and board and the student must still pay for some of their education equaling about 36, 000 for four years, minus living expenses.
Many of the strategies you listed in one of your blogs that help a student win the Lilly Scholarship simply does not work. If the is a deep dichotomy between schools concerning merit, then it is up to the schools to change this. The Foundation is only given the students that are at the schools. How to change this dichotomy is for debate and should not be the main reason why the Foundation should be criticized. Personally, the focus on sports at all the schools in the county rather than music or art seems to be the first thing that needs addressing. Why did Knox pay for a multi-million dollar sports complex when their football team went 0-10, but is considering getting rid of art? I find this absolutely hypocritical. The reason why North Judson students receive more scholarships is that they traditional are better students. They achieve higher academic scores on the SAT and GPA and are more involved in activities that will make them well rounded individuals. While they still have a deep focus on sports, they have a focus on education as well. Unlike some of your strategies, you do not have to play sports, be popular, or in music, or even go to church to win the scholarship. You are right that they need to volunteer and write well. It isn’t “smaltz” to write well. It’s a simple fact of life that the better one writes, the further in life one will go. Having good grades, good SAT’s and being able to write well and, most importantly, look an adult in the eye are essential for life and SHOULD be taken VERY seriously. It is hard work to achieve that and any merit based scholarship will look at those things with earnest. One does not need to be the top student in order to win. There are plenty of students from Knox, Oregon Davis and Culver that have applied and won the scholarship, but it hard to quantify GPA’s from different grades. A person who graduates first at OD may not have been in the top 10 at Knox. Before you bad-mouth the Foundation, be aware that other counties take only the valedictorians from schools and leave it at that. Here, at least, they consider how well rounded the person is and take people based upon other things beside rank.
It is very important that one does not get into trouble and it is sad that, in your example, the guy who was suspended as a result of the fight didn’t get a better position in life. However, there must be more to the story than what you have said. I have never heard of someone getting a “mandatory reduction” in their grades due to a fight. It must have been one serious fight if they did. Did someone end up in the hospital? Was there a lawsuit? I also disagree with your assumption that if one is in the top of their class, they can get into a college. I have mentioned this briefly before, but you continue the assumption that one has to be in the top ten to go to college. That is just not true and there are many people who are in even the top 10 percent or top third of their class that make it to very good and well respected college. The student may not get to go to Harvard or U of Chicago, but they would still get to go to college. Your assumption that the kid with the connection would “most likely win” is absolutely absurd. What was his GPA? What was is actual rank? What were his extracurricular activities? Did he seem like he could think critically about things and in a quick manner too? If the kid with better SAT’s applied for the Lilly, he would be just as likely, given what you have said about them, to be considered for the scholarship. Being 10 below the top doesn’t rule you out! I would argue that if he was chosen as a finalist, and they saw his expulsion record, they would give him a chance to explain it and would not exclude him.
There are a number of things that you have gotten wrong with your facts about the Lilly Scholarship but it was your responses to comments that need the most commentary. In one of the blogs, you say with much zest that “some years they give 3 of these away!” (It should also be noted that the number is set by the Lilly Endowment, down in Indy, and varies from county to county depending on their size) Three is not a lot for a county that pumps out 200-400 students a year. A student would have a 0.75 to 1.5 percent chance of getting the Lilly Scholarship. With so few scholarships to give, there will be many deserving people who do not receive one. Most students should not be expected to win one by their parents. I agree with lemeul that there are individuals who deserve these scholarships. They decide who deserves one by the questions they ask that get to the root of the student in addition to the scores and the tests, extra curricular activities. All of these points come together to be more than the sum of their parts. It is called merit for a reason. Anonymous is also right that you have to work really hard to get something like this. The Foundation can see drive and ambition and can spot laziness a mile away. The latter has a very unlikely chance of getting the scholarship, but the one that works their “ass” off, as anonymous, will have a good chance that that is why that person was a finalist.
I was flabbergasted that you would even think of favoring a “totally objective selection process based upon SAT scores. The SAT’s are a horrible predictor of future success and should never be used as a means to justify the ends. It should simply be one indicator among many. Lilly is looking for very well-rounded students. It has been proven that the SAT is bias towards certain groups, predominantly black students. Therefore, there is a much bigger “downside” than simply a few people getting perfect grades on the SAT! African American students scored 107 points below the mean on Math than white students and 93 below the mean on critical reading. There is also a large population that does not take tests well but do exceedingly well with papers and other course work. Why should they also be penalized because of the SAT? I am in favor of abolishing the requirement that students MUST score well. There needs to be a way to standardize education, but if the proverbial “they” cannot come up with one, then it should only be taken lightly. Again, this is why the Foundation uses a plethora of factors in determining the recipient of a scholarship.
I also find your title on Joan Miró’s painting a little troubling in addition as its placement. It is not titled, “man Kicking Stone with Bird”. It is in fact called, “Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird”. I have personally seen this painting and have been mesmerized by its subtlety and charm but I am curious why you chose to post it with your blog? Are you saying that the man, who seems to have no arms, is figurative of the Lilly Foundation and the Bird is figurative of students who are not chosen? Surrealist painting tends to be the epitome of modern, and sometimes postmodern, thinking in that they try to defy one simple definition. This painting could be a man throwing a stone at the bird, but just as likely, it could be the bird is not a bird at all but an unfinished bow and arrow. The stone could really an egg or even a moon, with the line signifying the arch it makes at night. I’m at a loss and am wondering if you could clarify that for your readers.
I said, “The future value of this scholarship at Notre Dame is about $175,000.” I am assuming a less than 10% annual increase in tuition. $35,700 times 1.1 to the 4th power is $182,251. If we included initial opportunity costs due to lose of income and interest costs of $14,000 per year, the actual economic value would be at least $300,000. Any economist would agree with a figure of more than $300,000 total future value.............The strategies for winning the scholarship that I listed in the posting "Start Kicking your Kid's Butt Now to Win $175,000" were meant to be quasi-serious. It’s what some might call satire, parody, or humor. I think that you give considerable support my number 1 strategy, “Move to North Judson”. Thanks. ........ Of course there are many ways that a merit scholarship might be figured. I simply don’t trust subjective criteria. Certainly there is much room for other points of view. .......... As to the tale of the young pugilist: When you are suspended from school you miss assignments and tests. You will not get straight A’s. The point was that students can and do get screwed. This supports the notion of non-subjective criterium. ......... The SAT combined with high school GPA is the best predictor we have of future academic success. The SATs certainly aren't, as you say, horrible. Most college admissions officers quite like it. The SATs and GPAs are quite far from being perfect; they are simply the best we have. The subject is filled with unresolved controversy. For example the SAT II scores seem to be better predictors. If you want to find the truly high achievers give the SATs to 12 year olds. 12 year olds with elite level scores tend to be magnificent in college and life. In any case I like objective criteria because I don’t think the local committee can do a better job. The minority bias argument, although interesting, is moot in Knox. ..... I address the Miró painting comment at the posting "Start Kicking your Kid's Butt Now to Win $175,000" posting.
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