he earned it but his family could easily pay it themselves and I trust he would spend it on school stuff but it,s more fair if it where to go to a poor kid.
I agree.Regnes said:Scholarships are for students in need of financial assistance, when your Dad is a multimillionaire multitudes over, you don't need financial assistance. Think about it this way, that's money that could have supported a kid who actually needed it. Good for him in being able to get the grades for it, but it's still selfish of him to have applied for it in the first place.
If Bill Gates received a financial assistance cheque, do you think it would be ok for him to keep it?
EDIT:
Also 54,000 is not a small sum, that's enough to pay for a student's entire education. They chose to give that money to a kid whose family would be able to support his education regardless without even seeing a pinprick in their bank account. They should have taken that into consideration, but they didn't, it was a flawed decision. He earned it based on a board's poor decisions, he should give it back.
Not the same thing.Buretsu said:Is it just me, or does this smack of hypocrisy?
We complain when rich people buy something we think they should have earned instead, and now when a rich person earns something, we're complaining that they should have bought their way in.
This. Especially the last part. It would have been the classy to return the money because his father has a bunch, but it's not like he applied for financial aid and took out student loans.UnendingLight said:Merit Scholarships =/= financial aid.
If he worked hard, got the grades, he deserves the money.
For people who have the ability to go to college, but are unable to do to finances, they have financial aid.
In a perfect world education would be free and we would all go to extended education, but unfortunately it is not. Would it have been gracious for him to turn it down and give it to someone more needy (if there even was someone available)? Yes. Doesn't mean he had to or that we should look down on him for not doing so.
You're using two different versions of the term "buy his way in" in the same example.Buretsu said:Well, that's what I'm trying to say. People would say that buying his way in would be wrong if he didn't earn it, but with this, people are saying that even though he earned it, it would be wrong if he didn't buy his way in.Woodsey said:Not the same thing.Buretsu said:Is it just me, or does this smack of hypocrisy?
We complain when rich people buy something we think they should have earned instead, and now when a rich person earns something, we're complaining that they should have bought their way in.
He still had to earn the place and now he's got it - a relevant comparison would be if his Dad had clearly paid someone off to earn his kid a spot at the school.