College Scholarship Hypothetical

[downtown]

In an effort to head off more sanctions, the Ohio State University is taking an unorthodox step towards keeping their athletes out of trouble. The coaching staff will now require that every athlete have an active checking account, and must present monthly budgets to university personnel. Their thinking is that this will keep them from misspending Pell Grant or university funding, and head off potential violation (like selling autographs for money) before they occur. NCAA, higher education administrators and journalists have praised this move.

That got me thinking, would that be acceptable for the general student population, or at least students on scholarship? Suppose that more stringent controls would increase academic performance and graduation rates.

Do you think additional restrictions, be they budget, personal conduct etc for college kids are an okay trade off? What level of control would cause you to balk at a major college scholarship? Would you take drug tests to keep a scholarship, abstain from drinking, make certain budget choices etc etc

WHAT ARE YOUR GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THIS TOPIC

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I don't really know that forcing kids to hand over their personal budgets and finacial information will do much to help with graduation rates. I also don't see how you convince and adult student like myself to go along with this. Maybe an 18 year old, but I'd sooner go to another school than take a scholarship with that kind of requirement.

How exactly does this help the average, non-athlete student?

 

[downtown]

I don't really know that forcing kids to hand over their personal budgets and finacial information will do much to help with graduation rates. I also don't see how you convince and adult student like myself to go along with this. Maybe an 18 year old, but I'd sooner go to another school than take a scholarship with that kind of requirement.

How exactly does this help the average, non-athlete student?

I used budgets as an example of a potential overreach (along with drug testing or something), although finances are a major reason for kids to drop out of school. Budgeting could help students manage the number of hours they need to work a week, their debt load, and making sure they aren't saddled by costly credit card debit.

 

[Synobun]

Isn't providing a scholarship usually given with the requirement that you're academically proficient in some manner? Shouldn't the school then trust the student to continue with their proficiency rather than doubting their ability to clean up after themselves?

For Pell Grant... Sure. Aid... Sure. But if we're talking about academic scholarships then... Sorry, no. If you earned the scholarship, you earned the scholarship, and your lifestyle choices should have no influence on your eligibility beyond, again, the requirements (such as needing to be a certain ethnicity, in a certain demographic, etc) and the proficiency that was required to earn the opportunity to begin with.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I used budgets as an example of a potential overreach (along with drug testing or something), although finances are a major reason for kids to drop out of school. Budgeting could help students manage the number of hours they need to work a week, their debt load, and making sure they aren't saddled by costly credit card debit.

I get that, but budgets won't help kids suddenly find more money to pay their high tuition bills. It also won't let them work longer hours to make up the difference and if they tried that, it'd hurt their grades.

Yeah, a lot of students are terrible with their finances. But I think the bigger problem is the extreme tuition bills that make all budgets tenuous at best.

 

[Antilogic]

This seems over the line as far as scholarships are concerned. I thought those were typically handled between the granter of the scholarship and the school and were not made out as personal checks to whoever the winner was. And you could always sell autographs anyway and not put it in your budget (keep all the money under-the-table). And how do they verify you stick with your monthly budget? Do you have to forward them your credit and debit card statements? Do they have the power to investigate you to see if you have more than one checking account?

Seems like the policy is intrusive and does not fully address the issue it is supposed to.

 

[choxorn]

Would you take drug tests to keep a scholarship, abstain from drinking,

So, basically, would I take a scholarship to attend college if one of the conditions was to prevent me from doing all of the things I came to college to do?

 

[Synobun]

I get that, but budgets won't help kids suddenly find more money to pay their high tuition bills. It also won't let them work longer hours to make up the difference and if they tried that, it'd hurt their grades.

Yeah, a lot of students are terrible with their finances. But I think the bigger problem is the extreme tuition bills that make all budgets tenuous at best.

If student budgeting is the problem, then provide them free budgeting consultation, akin to the free therapy a student has access to. Forcing them to give up their financial information to the university seems a bit self-defeating because the student may then be afraid to spend ANY of their money for fear of losing their scholarships.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

If student budgeting is the problem, then provide them free budgeting consultation, akin to the free therapy a student has access to. Forcing them to give up their financial information to the university seems a bit self-defeating because the student may then be afraid to spend ANY of their money for fear of losing their scholarships.

I agree with you here. I think many colleges do offer budgeting consultation as well.

 

[illram]

Budgeting is a life skill that people need to learn. I think this is too much of a heavy handed approach, and is sort of designed to appear punitive to appease the Almighty NCAA, but there should be some sort of free financial management clinic offered at every University. (I'm pretty sure there is.) Perhaps make it compulsory for disbursement or something.

Drug testing etc. for normal student population is way over the line.

 

[galdre]

there should not be athletic scholarships IMO - scholarships should be based on academic performance and financial need. Good students tend not to get into much trouble.

 

[cardgame]

This sounds intrusive and pointless.

 

[Ajidica]

It seems a bit excessive, but I would not be opposed if a college included it as a requirement for a full-ride scholarship or for other special circumstances.

 

[warpus]

That got me thinking, would that be acceptable for the general student population, or at least students on scholarship? Suppose that more stringent controls would increase academic performance and graduation rates.

I work closely with external (and to an extent internal) graduate scholarships for a major Canadian University.

We give out millions of $ every year, but don't think we would ever do anything as invasive as described in the OP

The coaching staff will now require that every athlete have an active checking account, and must present monthly budgets to university personnel.

We don't really have a problem with students misusing the funds they get.. and if they do? Hey, their problem - they're only putting unnecessary financial strain on themselves and will probably have a harder time securing funding next term or year.

It seems that what Ohio state did was a very special circumstance - in that it's easy enough for students to break NCAA rules... or at least it seems like it might be easy, if they're requiring so much oversight.

Non-athletic students don't have so many rules they can break - and any rules they break (i.e. fraud) would reflect badly on them, not really on the institution. Okay, so partially on the institution perhaps, but mostly on the student.

We'd need to hire extra people to administer this too, and that's just not happening. The result, if anything, would probably be higher expenses for us and less students applying to our graduate school. (There are a lot of options - some students would prefer a less hassle free environment)