What would be an impressive "average" scholarship per student number? (Plano: private schools)

[ElmoPuffinburger]

With end of school out there, schools are starting to announce "...graduating class of 'X' with '$X million' in total scholarship money awarded...".

Just curious what ranges are out there. As an example, I heard a school tout 80 kids graduating with over $7million in scholarships granted. That's an average of $87,500 a student. Sounded pretty good to me, but I don't what a normal range would be. Guessing higher for privates and lower for publics. Also assuming smaller schools could skew that number as well.

[numbersguy100]

With a smaller school, the average would have to be really impressive. I went to school over a decade ago but had 3 full scholarships to private colleges plus scholarships of 10k-15k per year at a couple more (back when college was only like $25k per year). If they used all those figures in their tabulation, that would have been several hundred thousand dollars worth of scholarships. I only applied to 6 schools, which is way below average now. Point being, if you took the money I was awarded and took two other graduating seniors who literally didn't get a dime, it would average to some number above the $80k figure below. If most kids are applying to 10 or more schools now, the number would have to be higher. At a small school, a few kids with lots of scholarship money can skew that number. With a graduating class the size of somewhere like Highland Park or Plano, obviously you need lots and lots of kids getting scholarships to keep the average high and I would think the number was more meaningful.

[ElmoPuffinburger]

I guess they could use the total of all scholarships offered to a particular student regardless of whether all were used. Throw in a couple of star athletes who may have had offers from many schools and I could see the average being higher. It would just seem disingenuous to total multiple offers but l've been surprised by lesser things.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by ElmoPuffinburger

I guess they could use the total of all scholarships offered to a particular student regardless of whether all were used. Throw in a couple of star athletes who may have had offers from many schools and I could see the average being higher. It would just seem disingenuous to total multiple offers but l've been surprised by lesser things.

I don't pay attention to the "$X million in scholarships awarded to the senior class" announcements for this very reason - it's the scholarships OFFERED, not the ones used. Therefore, one outstanding grad who gets a $200k free ride to 5 private schools has $1M in scholarships, whereas the next 9 kids got zero - it "looks" like $100k per graduate if you divide $1M by 10 students, but that's not reality at all.