Merit scholarships have their benefits

I don't recall hearing anyone evaluate the University by the caliber of its basketball team or its idyllic weather, and based on the recent weather trends, we wouldn't score very well anyway. What I have heard constant reference to in my few weeks here are Duke's qualities of uniqueness, diversity, competitiveness and balance-the balance between work and play, academic and social life and between the plethora of backgrounds and experiences that form our collective power as a student body.

I'm a local, as my hometown of Charlotte, N.C., is a mere hop, skip and a jump from Durham. I haven't done amazing things like those recognized in the President's convocation address... and yet I received the most valuable scholarship Duke offers: a Trinity scholarship, a full ride available to North Carolina residents and one that virtually no one has ever heard of.

Whether that's because there are just so few of us, or because eligibility is determined by need and that fact carries some sort of shameful stigma, I don't know. Maybe it's because we're content to make differences quietly-substantially, but quietly-and we don't need publicity or the fierce edge of competition that would come if the scholarships entailed national attention.

My family couldn't have paid to send me here even if I had received an A.B. or B.N. Duke scholarship, at least not without additional aid, and I don't mind admitting that. My decision to apply here was a shot in the dark, and the reason is not Duke's unfathomable prestige or stringent standards or the inaccessibility of its merit-based scholarships. In all that, Duke is unique-as well it should be-but approachable. It is in the area in which Duke is similar to many other private institutions in this country that the fault lies: Financial aid.

This problem is not unique to Duke. This is a problem faced by students pursuing higher education everywhere, because the formulas from which "demonstrated need" is determined simply do not accurately reflect what is feasibly affordable. The family contribution calculated from the FAFSA and PROFILE forms, which are prerequisites for the receipt of financial aid in any case, generally exceed that which would be reasonable and realistic.

The money does not exist to bring everyone to Duke who is deserving or meritorious. Restructuring the merit scholarship program is not going to alter that fact. In order to rectify the grave injustice that is being done to the majority of students and families in America regarding the cost of higher education, the movement must come from above: More government funds and private scholarships must exist to assist with college attendance and individual universities must then maximize those funds and minimize total costs to make this experience not only ostensibly, but realistically, affordable to everyone.

Katherine Thompson is a Trinity freshman.