Choate Refuses To Initiate Merit-Based Scholarships
By Erin Ellis ’10
News Staff Reporter
Merit-based scholarships, which reward students for academic excellence, have begun to reappear on the education scene since they last dissipated in the 1960s. Choate officials, however, feel such programs are unfair.
One of the major merit-based programs in prep schools is the Davis United World Scholars Program (DUWSP), for which students from Phillips Academy Andover, the Emma Willard School, Westminster, Lawrenceville, and Taft are eligible to apply. The initiative provides these students with $20,000 towards a preparatory school education and also finances college careers if students choose to attend one of the 89 colleges supported by DUWSP.
As opposed to need-based scholarships, merit-based scholarships are given to applicants who show remarkable academic and extracurricular success and often fund educations for students who are not in need of financial aid. Merit-based scholarships often finance their programs using the resources of the school’s financial aid fund and decrease the amount of assistance that the school can offer to its other applicants who are in need of financial support. “[This] dries up the school’s resources and limits the school’s ability to make education available to families that cannot afford it,” says Headmaster Shanahan. “I would be less offended with the idea of merit-based scholarships if a school [could] afford to fund them without decreasing the amount of need-based assistance they can give,” says Andrew Noel, the Director of Financial Aid. “I still would not support merit-based scholarships, but I would be less offended by the idea of them.”
Schools that boast merit scholarships have an advantage in admissions because applicants may choose the institution that gives them financial benefits.
“We want students to base their decision of what school they will attend based on where they want to go, not what school gives them more aid,” says Mr. Noel. “When our peer schools start having merit-based scholarships, we are no longer on a level playing field. Just last year, Choate was a student’s preferred school, but she was offered a merit scholarship at another school and couldn’t turn it down.”
Choate’s full year scholarships are need-based. Among them are the Icahn Scholars Program, which provides full tuition and a monthly stipend to students, and the Choate Scholars Program, which benefits students who show unique leadership and academic qualities by providing them with academic and travel stipends, in addition to funding a leadership or community service-based opportunity in the summer after their fifth form year.
However, the school does offer one merit-based system: the Mellon Scholars program, which provides $5,000 towards educational summer activities for up to fifteen students annually. “There is a difference between what the Mellon scholarship offers and what the Davis scholarship and other programs offer,” says Headmaster Shanahan. “The money in the Mellon scholarship goes to educational purposes because it must be used for summer educational programs. The money that other scholarships give often ends up as pocket money for families who can afford their child’s tuition.”
Students, too, resist adopting merit-based scholarships. Stephen Nason ’10 says, “I don’t like the idea of merit-based scholarships. Anyone who can afford to go to a prep school should pay for their education.” Brookie Safferman ’12 agrees: “I think that the students’ financial status should be looked at in scholarships, because it’s unfair to take money away from applicants who might need it.”
The Admissions Department has had several conversations with peer schools to slow the transition from primarily need-based to merit-based scholarships. However, the trend of merit-based scholarship continues to grow, and Choate may lose prospective students.
