Replies

hold on a minute here. why are you focused on the parents? focus on the kids if you are really trying to help them. you know this student. do they truly deserve the money? can they really use it?

don't hold the faults of the parents against the kids. look at the spirit of the scholarship and ask why it's there in the first place.

if this kid got a full first-year ride they might not really need the money anyway. but if the student is really a good kid and could use it, just overlook that mistakes were made at all levels of this interaction.

the kids mom sounds like a real piece of work. in my mind, not bringing the bounced check money was mean-spirited if done intentionally. if the kid is like the mom, keep your money.

use your discretion. and if you give the money, make it clear that is was given due to the child's need and that mistakes like this will not be tolerated again.

The difficult part of this decision is the student is a good kid, it sucks to deny her the money. But if the committee bends the rules for one, they gotta do it for others.

Keep in mind it is the students responsibility to get the info to the committee, if she trusted her parents to do it for her she should have stayed on her parents butt. The parent made a phone call to one of the members three weeks after the deadline to inform them of what was going on. The college info was just turned in tonight (6 weeks after the deadline).

I’m glad I am not on the committee that has to make this decision.

“make it clear that it was given due to the child’s need and that mistakes like this will not be tolerated again...”

Until the next sob story, at which point all “rules” are null and void. The path whichsoever feeleth thy goodeth shall be trod regardless.

Good call.

“I dare you to cross this line. Okay... this line. Okay... THIS one. And boy do I ever mean it now!!”

hold on a minute here. why are you focused on the parents? focus on the kids if you are really trying to help them. you know this student. do they truly deserve the money? can they really use it? don't hold the faults of the parents against the kids. look at the spirit of the scholarship and ask why it's there in the first place. if this kid got a full first-year ride they might not really need the money anyway. but if the student is really a good kid and could use it, just overlook that mistakes were made at all levels of this interaction. the kids mom sounds like a real piece of work. in my mind, not bringing the bounced check money was mean-spirited if done intentionally. if the kid is like the mom, keep your money. use your discretion. and if you give the money, make it clear that is was given due to the child's need and that mistakes like this will not be tolerated again.

The student doesn't need the money - the parents do. They'll figure out a way to pay for college with or without the scholarship.

If you have a small foundation, and you have rules for distributions of grants, and the trustees do not abide by those rules, you place the 501c3 tax exempt status of the association at risk should this breach cause your auditor to qualify the annual audit. Consult your attorneys and fully deny the scholarship - paying half the award is petty and shows lack of courage.

Sounds like the student wasn't too much on the ball either, and since it's HER education, she should have paid more attention.

Our #2 son could have been a National Merit Finalist, but he didn't bother filling out the paperwork. He also didn't fill out paperwork on a couple of other possible scholarships, though he did get a small one locally.

He wanted to go to Carnegie Mellon, which he knew would be big bucks, and he was eligible for Financial Aid because our #1 son was also in college at the time. We'd already told them they'd need to get scholarships or take out loans. #1 son got a scholarship to UMass Amherst. #2 son did get loans for what remained on his bill after the Financial Aid, and did two majors in 3 1/2 years in order to lessen the cost by about $14K. But he knows that he has to pay those loans back when he finishes Grad School (for which he did receive a nice Fellowship!)