The costs of education have continued to escalate over the last few decades, thereby making it harder for students, especially those from not so well do families, to attend institutes of higher education. While student loans do attempt to ensure that deserving students do get a chance at achieving their educational goals, they have the downside of tying up the student in loans that need servicing later in life. Scholarships offer the best means for financing one’s education since one is not required to repay them later. How institutes go about awarding scholarships differs, but there are some traditional common factors.
The academic capability of the student is one of the traditional awarding measures that continue to be heavily utilized to date. Decisions based on the academic performance of students aim to attract the brightest students who are deemed as having the potential to make the biggest impact in research areas and other knowledge-based areas. Decisions also give priority to students from low-income families who have difficulty in financing their education. These two factors have traditionally been the basis of most scholarship awards.
However, it is in my opinion that there is additional information that has up to this point being ignored but should play a role in the scholarship awarding. No doubt, we all have various personal experiences that forever affect our abilities. These experiences should be taken into consideration since they demonstrate some traits that only real-life experiences can reveal. For example, if a student is involved in a tragic accident that renders them disabled and probably leads to the death of their close friends, the incident will affect his performance. The academic performance of the student might suffer from this, but if they demonstrate resilience and a positive outlook despite this, the qualities should be used in awarding them a scholarship.
People of various upbringings bear different responsibilities. Scholarship awarding decisions fail to consider the type of responsibilities that are placed on a particular student. Some students have to take up the role of adults at very early periods in their lives due to the lack of one parent or the presence of irresponsible parents or guardians. The pressures these students are forced to bear at early stages in their lives should stand them in good stead in consideration for scholarships.
While there is an overemphasis on the academic performance and in particular grades attained, this is in no way a complete picture of an all-rounded student. As such, other exceptional achievements and special talents should also be considered. Proficiency in languages, for instance, should be given the prevalence, and poetic and artistic values should also be considered in the awarding of scholarships. This is because these values can greatly enhance the quality of the institute and further complement great academic achievement.
Scholarships hardly pay attention to the educational goals of the student. This is unjustifiable since the choices of courses act as an envisage of the potential of the student. A great deal can therefore be projected about the student based on his choice of course. This, together with other factors such as some personal achievement, should be used in scholarship awarding. Institutes are always looking for people who can add value to them and make them stand out even further. Scholarships can be used to further this goal by looking at the contributions that students are likely to bring to the institute. This can be easily forecast from a look at the contributions the student had in previous institutes. The commitment levels of the student to the institute and its goals should also be put into consideration since committed students will be loyal to the institute and work for its excellence.
With all these factors being considered, the scholarship awarding process will not only be more comprehensive in nature but will also lead to the fair consideration of a wider range of people for the good of both the student and the educational institute.