alumni Digest, Vol 39, Issue 5

[julie lamberth]

Why not?  If Bill Gates decides that he isn't going to pay for his  
kids to attend college (and he certainly has no obligation to pay for  
it), are we going to punish them for what their father earns?  Are we  
going to tell him he's required to pay?

I know that the system is effectively unworkable this way, because  
then everyone would just say, oh, I'm not paying for my kids, wink  
wink, get a scholarship, them slip them the rest of the money on the  
side.  But the philosophical answer to your question is yes, his kids  
should get a free ride to UNC if they go to S&M.

It's nice for parents to pay, but  I hate the assumption that they will.

And I think any kid who demonstrates a certain level of intelligence  
and drive should be able to attend (at least a public) school free of  
charge.  I can't imagine that graduating NCSSM doesn't show a high  
probability that a student has these characteristics.

What I would love to see is a group of kids who decide that, since  
they can't get the scholarships out of NCSSM that they'd be shoo-ins  
for out of their home school, they refuse to settle for a lesser  
school or to go way into loan debt, and just don't go to college.  I  
bet *that* would get the funding reinstated, if - horror of horrors -  
some of NC's little darlings weren't attending higher education at  
all.  Ha ha.  Ha ha ha.

Yes, I'm still bitter about having been forced to attend College Day  
on a Saturday when I would have rather gone home and already knew  
what college I was going to.

Julie Lamberth '95
On Apr 15, 2007, at 11:36 PM, Nick Gorton wrote:

> Jeremy Portzer wrote: "I think this makes a lot of assumptions that
> aren't necessarily true in every family.  My family is affluent by
> overall NC standards, but that didn't mean my parents were interested
> in spending their money on a high-priced private school.  We don't
> feel we're 'rich' but yet are in place in the middle class where I
> wouldn't be eligible for any grants."
>
> That's why I suggested 6xFPL. Assuming your parents are college
> educated, having that income would place you in the
> upper-middle-class. Most need based grants are for people living at
> the 2-3xFPL level, so the cut off I suggested covers a much larger
> range of incomes.
>
> "But the point is, just because my parents COULD afford to send me to
> Duke and pay for it completely, or another private school, doesn't
> mean they were actually willing to do it"
>
> That is certainly their decision. However, that should not be the
> basis for spending tax dollars. Taken to its logical end, this would
> mean that Bill Gates' kids should get as much financial aid as a kid
> whose parents make $20k/year. It would be nice if all kids were
> allowed to attend college free of charge. However in out current
> society, it is still a zero-sum game. Money that is used to pay for
> one kid's education come from a limited supply of funds. So that money
> should be spent in a manner that controls for need. It doesn't have to
> be entirely need based, and some merit based scholarships are
> necessary in order to promote academic excellence. However, there is a
> point (and we can argue the location of that point... 6xFPL, 8xFPL,
> etc) but this should always be a concern. And while the limit is up to
> interpretation, *that* there is a limit is not. Unless of course you
> think Bill Gates' kids should also be given free tuition to UNC if
> they attended SM?
>
> Nick
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