Merit Aid."I Wish You'd Never Been Born:" Turning Bedford Falls into Pottersville
2008; American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers; Volume: 84; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0010-0889
Autores Tópico(s)Higher Education Research Studies
ResumoMerry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan! In a time of widespread dialog about college costs, affordability, and access, is often victim of scathing verbal attacks. Merit aid is a prevalent, albeit somewhat mysterious, reality in undergraduate admissions. Often decried as a mechanism of social inequity, fewpublic commentators address broader realities that necessitate merit In challenging economic times like these, such awards are all more important for families and institutions alike. In fact, students, educators, and public coexist with merit aid much like life in Bedford Falls from It's a Wonderful Life. It isn't perfect, but it's better than we might realize, and it's home. A few of more strident critics feel great empathy for high college costs that many students incur, and use that empathy as a somewhat narrow lens to advocate that merit aid be eliminated, that was never born, so to speak. But, if turns out that American higher education really is a wonderful life, we should be careful what we wish for. Just as a nation without merit aid would be a far less desirable alternative than might seem from here, George Bailey never expected that, without him, Bedford Falls would have become dismal burg of Pottersville. Mr. Gower, you don't know what y ou r e doing' While current dialog regarding financial aid and college costs for students and families has mainly focused public's attention in a positive way, at same time, there is also alot of simplistic discussion with respect to concept disdainfully referred to as which can be more comprehensively identified as need-based aid. This type of grant or scholarship, funded by colleges and universities, is awarded irrespective of demonstrated financial (determined through submitted financial aid applications) and discounts education cost for families. It can be awarded for a wide variety of reasons and in a variety of circumstances, though most observers focus their attention on awards based on academic achievement or high standardized test scores. But, criticism of non need-based aid as a concept is akin to blaming hammer because you don't like how one craftsman is using it. It's not hammer's fault that building is a brothel and not a library. Many other craftspeople use hammers to build far more noble structures. When strategic financial aid, which includes non need-based aid, is employed optimally, is awarded in full support of institutional mission, and offers many easily overlooked social benefits. A misperception that is supported by many major media oudets is that aid is bad because rewards wealthy students at elite institutions, taking money away from equally deserving low-income students who are then left: outside university gates. Many perceive that institutional aid dollars are a finite resource, that any dollar given to a family that doesn't need it is by definition a dollar that can't be offered to a lower-income family. This common misunderstanding is perpetuated by hometown stories that highlight individual students - a scholarship recipient who feels guilty for receiving such a large award, and a stellar low-income student who is facing daunting college costs with insufficient financial The implications are thinly veiled or explicidy stated; wealthier student didn't big scholarship because she can afford to pay full sticker price, and if that money weren't being wasted on wealthy, there would be more available for needier students and families. At face value, this is an easily accepted and compelling narrative. It's a version of the rich get richer at expense of everybody else. Unfortunately, anecdote is far too simplistic and doesn't represent broader reality of non need-based financial aid in undergraduate admissions today. …
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