Recently, I read an article that confused me, frustrated me, and mostly made me mad. (You can read it HERE). In the article, the author states that merit scholarships contribute to student debt because they can be awarded to anyone, regardless of that person’s financial status. She argues that merit scholarships should not be awarded to those individuals with high GPAs and test scores, but they should rather be awarded to individuals who are or whose families are low income, regardless of their academic standing.
She’s missing the point of what a merit scholarship is.
Merit scholarships are awarded to students on the basis of the student’s GPA, standardized test scores, and the strength of their high school curriculum. Merit scholarships are not determined by the student’s financial standing, or by their family’s financial standing. That’s what makes merit scholarships so great. The award is based solely on the individual and their likeliness of academic success in college, based upon their academic record.
As the author writes in her article, “If you have $100,000,000,000, you could still get a merit scholarship, even though you already have all the money you could ever need to pay for school and more”. The problem with this argument is that it is highly unlikely that any 18-year old has $100,000,000,000 to their own name. Their family may have that much money, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the student has access to it. The family may be willing to pay for the student’s college, but the family may also make the student pay for school on their own.
Another argument that the author makes is that “Students with high GPAs, scores and ranks get perks already (dean’s list, honor societies, awards, etc.)." What I fail to understand is how these “perks” help a student pay for college. I am biased, because I myself receive several merit scholarships. I have also made the dean’s list, and I am a member of my campus’ honors college. But neither of these things help me pay for school. My merit scholarships do. I also happen to fall into the category of “the hard-working students that don’t have a quarter of a million dollars under their belts” that the author references in her article. Without my merit scholarships, I would have no way to afford to go to college.
I do not disagree with the author that the student loan debt crisis is out of control. I simply don’t agree with her means of remedying it. I personally do not have a solution to this problem, but taking away money in the form of merit scholarships from students who have earned it is not the answer.
