How do schools decide how academic scholarships are awarded?

[BearBirdBaboon]

I've been wondering about how indepenent schools decide how award academic scholarships are? Do schools offer an academic scholarship to a child who outperforms the others in one subject and does relatively well in the other subjects, but nothing outstanding, e.g amazing at maths and relatively well in everything else? Or, do schools offer an academic scholarship to a child who does very well across the board, but doesn't come top in any subject?

I would be really interested to hear your thoughts and especially if you have experience in making these decisions.

At our school the academic scholarships go to pupils who are excellent across the board and who are likely Oxbridge/Ivy League candidates.

It depends on the school, but for academic scholarships, most schools have an exam, and then they award scholarships in order of ranked overall scores. So the top ranked pupils will likely have got full/near full marks in all sections of the paper (for 11plus maths, English, vr, sometimes nvr, for 13plus incl. Science, Latin, French etc), but depending on numbers/overall quality of candidates, some might have scored a scholarship or maybe more likely an exhibition with a slightly lower overall score if they lost some marks in some areas but were very strong in others. Some schools also give 'Allrounders', for dc strong across the board, and there are auditions for music, sport and drama. Some schools might have specialist subject prizes, or headmaster awards that the head can give at their personal disgretion.

They make it up as they go along IME. Grossly unfair and untransparent procedures.

Some will be for highest achievers in the entrance exams, others may focus on excellence on one subject bit still above average in the other/s. Some will invite the high achievers to take a further scholarship paper, especially if the place is awarded on a pretest taken in year 6/7 and scholarship papers are taken in year 8.

My youngest is an academic scholar and my eldest has just gone through the application process. At their school, it's based on your grades, your attitude to learning and what your extra curricular interests are. They had to write an application letter and were then interviewed by a panel of teachers.

The youngest also had to do some exams as well as they were new at the school.

Interesting question. But exam scores are not the only criteria - interviews mattered too, for both the prep and public school scholarship processes I’ve seen recently.

Oh and both my children were good across the board at their subjects.

Their school also has music, dance, art and language scholars.

My dd was recently invited by her school to sit for an academic scholarship. It came out of the blue, a bit, to both her and me.

I would assume that the criteria, in her case at least, were a good attitude to learning, excellent record of attendance and levels of motivation. She is not the most academic person in the world (although she is more academic than she gives herself credit for), but she is extremely hard working, diligent, and focussed. I guess the school wanted to recognise and celebrate that.

She is already a drama scholar, and holds a music exhibition, so is a good all-rounder, really.

At 11+ they only have the exam results and the interview to go on. Most schools seem to go for strong overall results rather than maths superstar but only ok at English.

BUT these results are just from a few hours of contact at age 11. IME the kids who win these scholarships are not necessarily those who go on to be academic superstars as they progress through the school.

At DD's school, of the 6 top scholars only one won a form prize between Y7 and Y11 and none of them were in the top 15 (out of 130) scorers at GCSE.

So really not sure what the purpose of them is (other than the £5k a year of fees!!!)

Thank you for your replies so far - very interesting.

@NellyBarney You mentioned that scholarships are awarded to those who come top once overall scores are ranked. In your experience, is much consideration is given to the interview or references?

@jtaeapa May I ask why you feel the process is unfair? Has your experience with schools led to this feeling?

@FenghuangHoyan Nice to learn that your children's school recognises linguists. I haven't come across that before. My children would love that.

@ChnandlerBong Very interesting indeed to learn that the top scholars didn't then end up being in the top scorers at GCSE. Do you know what the feelings are amongst the parents that this was the case? Perhaps some of the parents of the GCSE top scorers who missed out on a scholarship at 11+ or 13+ may feel a bit peeved? Or does no one really care by that stage?

It's usually highest exam scores to get an interview - often across the board, but occasionally exceptional in one but still pretty damned high in others (most likely to happen with dyslexic mathmos)

Then interview - looking for "spark" that shows curiosity beyond primary/prep curricula

@BearBirdBaboon DD being a top scoring non scholar, I am a bit cheesed off at the £25k yes! Also cheeses off that 6th form scholarships only for newcomers.

DD on the other hand doesn’t care. Some of the scholars have felt under enormous pressure to do well and she’s glad not to have that.

My kid's school, the 6th form scholarships are not just for new starters, as its that that my eldest has just applied for.

Getting a percentage off the fees does help, but the eldest doing so wont make a difference as its only the first that counts where we are. However, they work as hard as they can at school and want to feel like they are being recognised for it.

We have felt a bit fed up that some of the decisions around this process have felt a bit arbitrary, but we're lucky we're able to just about afford to have the kids there and as long as the kids are happy, then we are... as we're not paying this much for unhappy kids!🙂

Importance of interview depends on school, many don't interview at all for acidic scholarships at least. You only get invited if your test scores were top anyway - interview is then to see how keen you are to take up your 'scholar's duties' and how motivated you are. In case of boarding school, how likely you are able to cope with boarding.

My dd was invited to apply for an academic scholarship for the 6th form. She had to complete an application form including personal statement, had an interview with the head and had to give a presentation on an academic area of interest. Application process is pretty transparent with all details on school website. Academically she is a solid all rounder and particularly good at maths and science and taking 4 a levels.

DD got one for Y7.
The letter said she scored 1st in the English exam and 3rd in the Maths exam. They also said they enjoyed spending time speaking to her and hearing about xyz that she did in her spare time and liked hearing her opinions on xyz (current affairs type stuff)

@ChnandlerBong I'd be cheesed off about the £25K too, especially as I assume the non top scoring scholars remain scholars in the 6th form and therefore retain the fee discount. Seems very unfair that existing pupils can't apply for the 6th form scholarships.

@Hoppinggreen It's nice that the school took the time to give you specific feedback on where your DD's results ranked and how she did in the interview.

My DS got offered an academic scholarship at 11+. He was called back after the exam for a further interview and had to do various tests verbally. Along with meeting the head.

@jtaeapa May I ask why you feel the process is unfair? Has your experience with schools led to this feeling?

Yes - mine are now older teens so I have seen the scholarship process three times for their cohorts: 11+ 13+ and 16+. As it turns out, both of my kids did get scholarships with money off so this isn't really a case of sour grapes on my part. It's just an observation. The process each time was extraordinarily untransparent. Neither of my kids ever had to write a personal statement type thing for it. One was interviewed (aggressively and irrelevantly - about a subject they didn't take) and one wasn't interviewed at all. We had no idea what subjects were important - ie for a 16+ do they look at the subjects you're going to take at A level, or do they look at all your GCSE subjects? Who knows? Sometimes they gave grades as a result of scholarship exams and you'd find that someone with substantially lower grades got given a scholarship. Or you'd find the top scholarship went to someone who didn't get the highest grades. Or at other times, all of the marks/grades/placings were a complete secret and the scholarships seemed to have been awarded fairly randomly, or to someone who the head seemed to really like.

@jtaeapa Thank you for sharing that. It does seem hugely unfair that their approach isn't more consistent. Maybe they do this so that it makes it impossible for parents to know predict who the scholarships will be awarded to every year.

DS got an ‘honorary’ academic scholarship (£50 and a letter of commendation). All the funding goes to means tested bursaries, and rightly so.

Following

My DS was offered his based on the entrance process; they considered the report and previous puma scores over the years from his prep school, his entrance exam result and the interview performance. It wasn't something he could apply for, all candidates who applied to sit the entrance exam were considered and the offer came as part of the overall yes/no decision. There are about a dozen in his year (Y7 - a year group of c180) in the academic scholarship programme and apparently they add another 8 or so over the years that emerge through in school performance, so that by Y11 there are around 20 academic scholars in the year.

Interestingly when I spoke to the admissions officer at the DC school before DD sat the exams she asked if we would be able to send DD without a scholarship (yes). I answered truthfully and thought I had scuppered her chances but apparently not. It was only 25%, which was the maximum on offer (50% if at Prep from Y5) so I suppose if it had been completely unaffordable her scholarship wouldn’t have been any use. From knowing the kids who had the academic and other scholarships in DDs year as well they were all from families with (at least on the surface) decent incomes.

They make it up as they go along IME. Grossly unfair and untransparent procedures

I honestly don't think that's the case for most schools. I know one school who makes the decision purely on entrance results and their view of potential external exam results. They are all about the league tables. The work on the theory that talent isn't sufficient so they also judge work ethic - which they pick up from references and interview. So highest entrance test may not always get the top award and it might appear "random".

In another school they look for balance across a year group. They might select someone with slightly lower grades but potential in other areas.

Heads of private schools will adjust criteria based on how they want to shape the school and it's reputation externally so I don't think it can be a science with just academic cut offs. That's what grammar schools do.