I lost my scholarship to SDSU:

Dear new incoming masters students-

As you know, you were selected by your respective programs to receive an in-state resident fee award. These awards are given to the most competitive applicants for the fall recruitment period.... Unfortunately, the Biology Department was recently informed that due to litigation, SDSU is no longer able to issue such awards to students.

Thanks, asshole--whoever you are. To me, it sounds like either some dumb idiot fuckwad who was pissed he couldn't get a scholarship of his own and cried "Discrimination!", or some lame politically-correct everybody-is-a-special-snowflake advocacy group crying that everyone--regardless of innate talent or hard work--should be treated exactly the same as some fucktard who sits around with his thumbs up his ass, listening to his iPod during class (if he even bothers to show up at all).

However, there is a silver lining. The Biology Department feels really bad about all of this, so they say:

We would like instead to pay you via a Graduate Assistant contract for the Fall 08 semester. You will not have any responsibilities.... We hope that the extra [money] will compensate for the inconvenience that this change has caused.

In principle, I am very angry that I had to lose my scholarship, but at least in this way, I'm getting extra money for doing nothing, plus it won't cut into my grant money (the scholarship would have reduced the grant money in my aid package because they both are meant to cover tuition and fees).

I come out a winner, but you know who comes out a loser: the future applicants to this M.S. program, since they won't have the opportunity to get that scholarship money. Thanks a lot.

Lame.
Schools shouldn't feel as though they need to "equalize opportunity." Students who do better than others deserve perks, hands down. Otherwise, students lose the element of competition, and where's our drive, then?
» Unicornasaurus on 2008-07-01 02:13:40

Exactly. The same thing happens at the school I attended (up until this year, yay). Kids in lower-level classes (CP rather than AP or IB track) are recognized because of their improvements, while AP and IB kids are "expected" to improve. So CP kids aren't? Huh. Interesting take on that. -sigh-
» Unicornasaurus on 2008-07-01 02:43:18

Augh. It is nice that everyone wants the top of the top of the top, but if you've messed up and can never achieve the top of the top of the top, you get overlooked, and tons of doors are closed. :/

Don't take away from the people who earn it, but don't completely close it off from people who aren't pushing a 4.9/4.0.

It kind of sounds like I'm whining for equalizing things, but moreso it's annoyance at saying "wow, I'd love to do that, but wait, I can't, my gpa isn't ridiculously high because I had a bad semester/didn't adapt well/blahblahblah" and getting laughed at for not having a 3.8 or so.

I guess it's because I'd be willing to work that bothers me, and everyone assumes otherwise based on gpa and such.
» ikimashokie on 2008-07-01 03:00:10

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