- Dec 22, 2009
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That will help towards one semester of books, labs, parking, and meal plan.
Question for parents of college students
- Thread starter Megobee
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- Nov 18, 2013
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When Student Athletes register with the NCAA Clearinghouse any gifts or awards for athletic accomplishments or participation cannot exceed $250. A scholarship would be a different matter so I think from your end you’re doing it correctly. The rules vary by division and are ever changing. My DD’s academic scholarship didn’t count against the teams allotment of 12 as long as she maintained a 3.0 GPA. If she dipped below that, she still got the money, but now it counted as a partial athletic scholarship against the team. I know your situation is totally different. I just use that as an example that the system is crazy and you’ll want to find someone who knows what they’re talking about. Reaching out to admissions office’s at the different levels should provide what you need.
This is a great thing you’re doing for kids and every little bit will help them. Typically an athletic scholarship covers books. They spend a lot of time on the road and they’d love to have $500 of their own money for that.
- May 29, 2015
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One semester.
I’m cheap, so I’ve been very fortunate with my kids (and when I went back, and with my wife going back to school). I could write an article on textbook shopping. I would even include the story of my first college textbook experience that almost resulted in me and 25 classmates getting arrested over a $15 workbook.
Or my paper on e-textbooks that outraged a professor so bad she almost kicked me out of the class. (25 years later it turns out I was right.)However, a naive freshman going to the campus bookstore and needing a $350 textbook for one class ... and yes, they are out there. I will say, technology has changed things, but textbooks are still big business.
- Jun 8, 2016
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Don't ever buy textbooks at a campus bookstore...
Interesting. I am the President of our HS booster club and we give out tons of scholarship $$$ every year. $11,250 this year alone. We were talking about this at our last meeting. How should we write the check out? We have been writing the checks directly to the student once they show proof that they are registered for classes. We were thinking we should write the check out to the student and the Institution. Almost all the the student do not go on to play collegiate sports but there a 4 this year that will including my DD. The schollies are based on parental volunteer hours and booster club membership mostly. We also give out highest GPA per team scholly as well. Thoughts?
- May 29, 2015
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That is rule #1 for me ... although I will admit my kids have because there have been a few times that the bookstore was cheaper. Rare. Very rare.
I can’t remember which podcast it was, but either Freakonomics or Planet Money did a great podcast on text books and text book arbitrage.
- Jun 8, 2016
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There are a lot of options nowadays. At some point I actually stopped using a textbook for a few of the classes I had been teaching for a while and just handed out an extensive set of class notes, with references they could check out from the library if they wanted to. Of course I had some kids complain in the end of year class evaluations that they didn't have a textbook (even though all that had to do was check out one of the 10 books I had referenced) so sometimes you cannot win..
- May 29, 2015
- 3,813
- 113
- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
- 113
The professor who didn't like your paper didn't happen to use a textbook she wrote, did she? LOL!!That was one part of my college paper!
- Sep 26, 2016
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At the end of the day, a $500 scholarship is worth approximately $500. Which to most of us, is greatly appreciated (although generally not the difference in the kid going to college or not).
That said, $500 definitely should buy a year of books especially Freshman year, although I know a lot of lower-end schools (community colleges around here especially) allow their professors to require "custom" books (as in, customized by the professor specifically for their classes) which are then only available at the campus bookstore. If the recipient is going to one of those schools, $500 might get them a semester of books (but they are more likely paying significantly less in tuition, so they are still far ahead). If they are able to buy books online, or use "digital rentals" instead of dead-trees versions, a smart shopper should be able to get a full year of books for that much. Now, once you get out of the bulk "general ed" classes and into major-specific classes, you might be spending $150 or more on a single book with no cheaper options available, but, again, it all varies based on where the kid goes, what classes they take, and how cozy they are with their classmates (sharing textbooks is definitely an option!).
Alternatively, $500 will outfit them in ramen and mac and cheese (generic orange-powder brand at least) for their entire college career (I would hope anyway), or pay for laundry for about the first three years (assuming $4/load to wash/dry and one load per week, but only 9 months of the year).
Don't feel like you are short-shrifting anyone by giving $1500 total to three girls instead of $1000 to one. That money will help the recipients, and assuming they were brought up right, both they and their parents will be highly appreciative. Because, again, that's $500 they wouldn't have without your scholarship program, that cost them likely little more than writing an essay and maybe an interview (I'm assuming there obviously).
