Style Weekly has the story on how Samuel Best, Armstrong High School’s class of ’08 valedictorian, may not be able to attend UVa because his parents make a little too much money to get much help but not enough to able to come up with even with the share required by student loans.
9 comments
I was in the same boat. I ended up going to community college for my first two years and working at night to pay for tuition and books while living at home with my folks. not ideal, but necessary.
I finished my degree 10 years later by going to a 4 year university on the weekends and working 40 hours a week the whole time.
Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
I should note that I was not valedictorian in my graduating class, but I did well enough.
I hope Mr. Best gets some help from the publicity. If not, I’m sure that his hard work and perseverance will see him through.
1) If he is good enough to get into UVA couldn’t he get an academic scholorship to a lesser school?
2) student loans… the parents don’t pay them, the kid does after he gets a nice paying job after UVA. My high school buddy has 11 brothers and sisters and thier dad was a cop, mom didn’t work…. all of them went to college on student loans except for one that went on the GI Bill…
What about pushing academic excellence for the valedictorian? While student loans cover some expenses during your freshman and sophomore years you are limited to a very small loan amount and traditionally that amount doesn’t cover your cost of tuition, books and housing. Even paying for community college for some is difficult because of the size of loans. With the Pell grant you get less based on the parents income. Mr. Best won’t be the first or last student to be caught in the trap of parents making too much according to the federal guidelines but not making enough to pay college tuition. I too would hope the community would step up and help out.
The “community” is well supported by millions of dollars in scholorship money offered by corporations, interest groups and memorial funds. Being valedictorian puts Mr Best in an excellent position to earn this type of community support. The only catch is the amount of work involved in securing this type of funding. I think Mr Best should “help himself” by making it his full time job, searching and applying for as much money as he can find. Hundreds of thousands of dollars goes “unclaimed” every year. There is no reason he cant go to UVA if he truly desires to do so.
Lenore
Samuel Best aim higher. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton offer better scholarships to the middle classes. Check out http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/weekinreview/30konigsberg.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=scholarships%20for%20the%20middle%20class%20at%20harvard&st=cse&oref=slogin .
Lenore
You are correct that there are millions of dollars worth of scholarship money and while I can’t say this happened in this case I can tell you many of the seniors are not being guided to them or know they exist. In 2006 a young lady I had custody of was graduating from a RPS during this time they had one meeting for the parents and that was to discuss what SOL’s were missing for graduation. I asked a guidance counselor if financial aid and college prep was going to be discussed was told it would be but it never happened. Her grades were not good enough for an academic scholarship but because she had participated in the band we shopped around ourselves for a band scholarship but even with that the counselor had to be hounded to fill out a reference for her college application. RPS reduced the number of guidance counselors to state minimums and I know prior to that they had little time if any to devote to guiding students to programs to help fund college. If our schools can’t help who can? There are companies out there specifically designed to “find” scholarships for a reason but other nearby localities provide workshops on financing college.
http://www.virginia.edu/financialaid/loans.php#PLUS
Straight off the UVA website. Payment is often deferred to after the student graduates. Yes, you are incurring a lot of debt that you will end up paying off after college but it is well worth it.
Carlatta-
Agreed, it is an arduous task that would intimidate many. This bright young person has proven he has what it takes to be diciplined and persistant. Google scholorship and an endless list of assistance appears. I would not pay for any assistance (endless nightmares can be described on this front). He does not need to be limited to acedemics or extra curricular interests nor must they relate to any particular school. Many memorial funds just want to know that someone is going to make good use of the money and proven they will succeed. In addition to the internet, librarians can direct him to volumes of books that simply list scholorships that are registered. Funeral directors can put him in touch with the companies that set up and maintain memorial scholarships. I too wish the guidance counselors were more helpful, but they are not the only resource, thankfully. I wish the message to this capable young person would have been “grab hold of your boot straps boy” instead of, “your deserving so put your hand out, someone else will do it for you” Where there is a will, there is a way!
Lenore