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Doug and I recently crossed into another dimension -- the Scholarship Zone. It's place I would rather not cross into. Nevertheless, I have.
It's a strange world -- a world apparently filled with people unlike ourselves. There are people of races and religions more desirable than ours; of memberships and corporations more generous than ours; of physical attributes more worthy than ours. In the Scholarship Zone, all men are not created equal.
We have crossed into the Scholarship Zone to help our firstborn, our eldest son, attain funding for higher education. While he has chosen a modestly priced, in-state school, he is still many thousands of dollars away from making tuition. You see, he was not born to wealth, just middle class. And there is no college fund.
So, we enter the Scholarship Zone to find those who have the wealth and generously share.
But, what we have found to be true, is that the generous share with those unlike our firstborn -- he does not fit their criteria for a worthy candidate. He was born white, and male. He was not born to be extremely tall, or short. He was born to be healthy and strong. He was not born African, or Irish, or Italian. He was baptized Catholic, not Lutheran or Baptist or even Jewish. He is not an illegal immigrant (or as the criteria stated, an "undocumented immigrant"). His father is not a firefighter, or policeman, or farmer, or even a White Castle burger flipper. He was not home-schooled (yes, apparently that is an advantage in the Scholarship Zone). He has not plans to be a teacher or a nurse or even a financial planner.
Apparently, he, who is white, male, healthy, smart, Catholic, and intends to study foreign language is actually in the minority in the Scholarship Zone. He is destined for a future of massive college debt, my poor firstborn.
Is there a patron saint of college funding, I ask?
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Barb, I've been down this road three times! We were told that a minority student with a lower ACT score than our oldest was the candidate most likely to win a scholarship. It happened time and time again. White, Catholic, middle class...the only advantages my three students had were that they were female. God help our dear young men! I'll face this hurdle in a couple years. Praying for you and your dear young man.
ReplyDeleteSt. Jude...pray for them!
Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your sympathy -- and your prayers. I hate that my son will graduate from college with a mountain of debt, but with three more at home, there just is no choice for him.
The unfortunate part is, until five years ago, Doug worked at Ohio State and would have received tuition as a benefit. He left Ohio State to work for the diocese, and while we get tuition credit for high school, it doesn't help our oldest with this big bill!
Prayers Barbara and much luck...we are certainly headed this way with our second son. He graduates from high school next year and we will begin again with all of this headache-inducing paperwork.
ReplyDeleteCheryl,
ReplyDeleteI will think of you while I struggle through this!
It seems absurd that women are still considered minorities in the academic arena- more women go to college and graduate than men, medical schools are over 70% female now. Dh says that most elite college medical residencies are about 90% women.
ReplyDeleteThere is something wrong about society these days, this push for women to push out all their male counterparts for grades, scholorships, college admission, and then later after they have babies, to quit and stay home leaving the men to shoulder all the financial responsibilty.