Like Free Money? Evidently High Schoolers Don’t.

[MonTexan]

I am currently the chairman of a non-profit organization in the oil and gas industry. All funds generated through the organization go toward scholarships for kids pursuing engineering-related degrees and grants for science/math teachers.

My deadline for scholarship applications was up this week and I was utterly amazed *disappointed* at the number of applications that were submitted. We are offering FREE money to these kids and they won’t even take the initiative to fill out a two page application?? Amazing.

I’ll bet if the parents knew these funds were available I would have gotten a MUCH better response … these kids obviously think “mom and dad will take care of it†or “I’ll just take out some student loans.â€

Or maybe they’re just not interested in college because they plan to hit the lottery in the next couple years. Who knows?

 

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[Smooth]

One word-- laziness.

Outstanding idea though. Would love to hear more about it. Do you have a website?

 

[Runum]

I believe you completely. Not sure if there is only one reason though. Some of the kids need the money but are oblivious to the opportunities. Some just think life will take car of them because it always has. Heck, my own kid keeps me in the dark about scholarship opps. she is offered and she is in the running for first in her class AND both of her parents are fully engaged in the education system.

Is your scholarship only focused on the Houston area? I could get you a filled out app this weekend but we're here in Ft. Worth area.

 

[bflbob]

The Lions Club I belong to sponsors at least three scholarships each year. In the past, we had as few as 2 or 3 applicants from each school.

Something happened this year, since we're looking at about 20-25 per school.

That's about 5% of the class, so not too bad!

 

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[Cat Man Du]

I am currently the chairman of a non-profit organization in the oil and gas industry. All funds generated through the organization go toward scholarships for kids pursuing engineering-related degrees and grants for science/math teachers.

My deadline for scholarship applications was up this week and I was utterly amazed *disappointed* at the number of applications that were submitted. We are offering FREE money to these kids and they won’t even take the initiative to fill out a two page application?? Amazing.

HOW............Do they find out about this scholarship??? Is the problem perhaps that they are NOT being made aware of it ?? :smxA:

 

[GoldenEggs]

My first thought was wow, we have declined in interest in science if there are not enough applicants.

 

[hakrjak]

I think a lot of kids think they have to be A+ super students to quality for a scholarship.

My guidance counselor let me in on the truth that you DO NOT even need to be a B student to qualify. I was a 2.5 GPA kid, and she had me apply for everything that was offered in the office.... I ended up getting about 10 small scholarships for a total of around $3k back in the mid 90's.

Some of the scholarships, I was the ONLY kid to even apply for!!! Kids just would not fill out the paperwork and take a chance, because most of them felt like they weren't worthy.


Cheers,

- Hakrjak

 

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[Kontent]

How is your non profit advertising the scholarship? Personally when I was in college, I filled out every application I got my hands on, mostly through the scholarship aggregation site fastweb.com. I am not trying to promote them on this site, as I never received a scholarship through them, but it could be a resource your nonprofit can use if not already.

By the way, that's awesome that you and the non profit are doing this. The world needs more people like you.

 

[MonTexan]

Is your scholarship only focused on the Houston area? I could get you a filled out app this weekend but we're here in Ft. Worth area.

The scholarships are actually for students at select schools in East Texas...basically the area served by this particular organization.

HOW............Do they find out about this scholarship??? Is the problem perhaps that they are NOT being made aware of it ?? :smxA:

I personally contacted administrators/counselors at each of the schools and sent them the applications. This actually COULD be party of the problem....if the counselors aren't pushing the kids to fill them out they might not even know about them. I *assumed* that they would have the kids' best interests at heart - this may not be the case.

For a few of the schools I had to send a follow-up email a week after my initial contact asking "did you receive my scholarship application for your students to fill out??" I would have expected them to excitedly send a THANKS! email....wasn't the case with most of them.

My guidance counselor let me in on the truth that you DO NOT even need to be a B student to qualify. I was a 2.5 GPA kid, and she had me apply for everything that was offered in the office.... I ended up getting about 10 small scholarships for a total of around $3k back in the mid 90's.

Exactly....your counselor pushed you to apply. I'll bet some of these counselors didn't bother. Pretty sad really.

 

[Phantom309]

It is pretty sad that the counselors didn't even take the time to say thanks for making their job a little easier. All they had to do was was give the child the app and let him/her fill it out. I think it's awesome that your organization offers that program to kids giving them the chance to make a name for there selves.

 

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[MonTexan]

Pefect example of an administrator that could care less about helping their students...

After introducing myself and providing the application to the principal of one of the eligible high schools, I didn't hear anything for over two weeks. I then followed up asking if he'd received our application and he says "yes, that he'll pass it along to the counselor."

Yesterday (a week after the deadline) I sent another note saying that I hadn't received a single application from his school and that I would be willing to extend the app period another week.

He writes back "thank you I will try to check on this."

You will TRY to check on this? What a crock. He's just blatantly screwing these kids over becuase of his own laziness. I doubt he even sent the application along to the counselor in the first place.

I've felt for a long time that our teachers are UNDER-PAID and this only re-inforces that notion. Maybe if we gave them a reasonable salary we could attract some TALENT that actually CARES about the students. No offense to any teachers on here, there are many that DO care greatly. I'm just afraid that's the exception rather than the rule...

 

[andviv]

Are teachers' names for each school public record or advertised somehow?

Check if the school's website has the names and email addresses of the teachers, and contact them directly, see if that increases the chances of getting kids to apply.