Proper Allocation For College Scholarships

John Williams
Cat Weiner
Proper Allocation for College Scholarships Fairness is a principle that western society ingrains in its people. But what is fair when everyone cannot get the same treatment. Whether it is vaccinations, welfare, or in this case college scholarships, allocation must be used when there are not enough resources to go around. There are many ways to allocate resources, some working better than others. We must analyze all of the methods of allocation to determine what the most fair course of action is. One of the methods that could be used to determine who gets a college scholarship could be the lottery approach. Everyone who wants to get a scholarship could apply to the lottery program and then the winners would be picked.

This could be done by giving the scholarships to those who request them first. In this scenario, it is not the fairest system because again, it does not account for merit or help any extra people get into this program. It could leave people in poorer areas at a disadvantage if they did not have the resources to call, or go claim the scholarship. This is another system of allocation that should not be used in an instance like this. A more appropriate method that could be utilized is the sickest first method. In this scenario it will be interpreted as the poorest first approach. It would work by giving those who are economically disadvantaged the scholarships. Again, merit is not considered, but it is different from the latter because in the long run it could give people the resources they need to rise out of poverty. Therefore this method would be more appropriate and would be considered just. Many people have argued that a younger first system of allocation is the fairest. In this case, it will be called the freshman first system. The scholarships could go to those who are going into their first year. If this were done, merit could be used to determine who gets the scholarship among the uprising freshman. This system is appropriate for scholarships, but some may criticize that it leaves out the

Those who have more school left ahead of them (in terms of credits) would have a better chance of getting a scholarship. This would mean prioritizing students who are entering college for the first time with no transferrable credits (high school AP course credits for example). This would make getting a scholarship harder for second year students, and students that may have taken time off of school. This principle is not necessarily the most sensible or just in this application because students who are very close to finishing but don’t have the last bit of funds to, and students that may have taken time off for medical or other critical reasons and are looking to return to their studies are at a serious