Scholarships losing appeal

In my smu email account, once in 2 days, a school administrator sends us newspaper articles, selected based on whether it affects us and articles that have any smu professor's citation. In a way it's a bit of spoon feeding. No wait, it's complete spoon feeding. Shouldn't business students, or any university student, take the initiative to stay current?

Anyway I noticed an article about scholarships no longer being the golden ticket for students to achieve a high-flyer career path. Well, you know, parents or mine at least always say how neat it would be to get your education all paid and upon graduation, a job is secured. No need to worry yada yada. Or some version like that.

While I agree with the article, that scholarships are not as appealing, I disagree that students don't find them attractive. 2 problems exist: mismatch in expectations and irresponsibility. You can't rule out students who genuinely hold on to traditional beliefs too. Take myself for an example, I really wanted the MFA scholarship one year ago. (eventually I did NOT get it) This was firstly in my area of interest and I'm genuinely open to serving in the public service. The scholarship may not be mine but I'll still try for MFA one day!

The article has not considered other students who cannot afford university fees. True, Singaporeans are more affluent now but some things that make up the college experience are damn expensive. Overseas student exchange (easily $12k), overseas study mission, a new wardrobe of corporate attire, notebook, useless textbooks. Now you see why scholarships are still to-die-for. Another thing is the trend of bond-free scholarships given out. Some are given by unversities, via the donations of philanthropic individuals, and corporations. A form of CSR? Maybe. In another scholarship interview wth AmCham once (another one that i failed to get), I asked, 'Why is your company so nice to offer a bond-free scholarship?' The director said, some of them have been in Singapore for 10, 15 years. They feel it's time to give back something to the society.

So suddenly, there's a competition of bond-free and bonded scholarships, no wonder many scholarships are losing appeal. That newspaper article was in Chinese, by the way. There could have been serious flaws how I might have intepreted it. HAHA. So, maybe, just take all this with a pinch of salt.