mama said there'd be days like this.

The first thing that came into my mind while reading this article? Scott’s Tots, from that episode of The Office. Michael Scott had to renege on a promise that he made ten years ago, when he pledged to a class of third graders that he would pay their college tuition, four years in full, once they graduated high school. He assumed he would be a millionaire in ten years. (Obvious Michael Scott logic).

Thankfully, Yale has a little more sense than Michael Scott, and a bank account that is much more well-endowed, so hopefully reneging won’t be an issue (dear God I hope not). But I’ll be honest. The opening paragraph sounds a little too-good-to-be true, promising impossible miracles. Full tuition? And all I have to do is maintain a 3.0, fulfill 40 community service hours, and not get expelled? Come on. Nothing in life is that easy. There’s always a catch. But from reading this article, there don’t seem to be too many in this case. The main asterisk I found was that your total funding depends on how long you have been a student in New Haven. If you enter the public school system in kindergarten, and remain a student until you graduate high school (fulfilling the academic and behavioral stipulations), you get 100% funding of tuition. This percentage decreases by 5% every year you delay entering the system (95% if you come in during first grade, 90% in second, etc.) This is mostly to prevent people from moving to New Haven junior year of high school & reaping the benefits last minute. You aren’t eligible for any scholarship if you enter the public school system after ninth grade. Although they don’t say, I’m guessing that students already in the public school system right now will be grandfathered in.

The scholarship doesn’t seem to cover room & board or extra expenses either, which can sometimes be as much as tuition. Potentially students could apply for other scholarships or financial aid to cover these costs. But I wonder if they will still be eligible for university financial aid after receiving this scholarship.

I’m not trying to be negative about this, but I can’t help being skeptical. It’s just that experience has taught me to be wary of big flashy promises. Nothing is as simple as it is marketed. Throughout middle school and high school, teachers told us that if we worked hard and got the grades, we could go to college, regardless of the cost. The word “Scholarships” became this ethereal mystical thing in our minds, the catch-all answer to solving all our problems. In reality, scholarships are not as abundant as our teachers had promised, especially after senior year of high school is over. And while I was lucky enough to get into a school with a very generous financial aid program, a lot of my friends were not. While ever-mystical “scholarships” may help them out a bit, most of their tuition is paid for by something much more grounded in reality: loans.

But I digress. If this program grows into everything it promises to be, well then damn. That’s amazing. This is huge. For the city, for education reform, but especially for the kids of New Haven. To know that money is no object — that it’s ACTUALLY no object, not just sorta-kinda-we-can-give-you-$10,000-but-you-still-have-to-pay-the-other-15-grand — is a true blessing. I honestly hope this turns out to be everything Yale and New Haven want it to be.