Answers I liked

[the anglophile]

Hmm okay... Do you guys think I should retake it then? My school doesn't tell you your GPA until the end of the year but I think I will probably have a 3.85-3.95...

[Portia]

Hmm okay... Do you guys think I should retake it then? My school doesn't tell you your GPA until the end of the year but I think I will probably have a 3.85-3.95...

Stop the madness. It really makes me wonder what kind of adults we want teenagers to be when we subject them to this kind of stress.

I think a cool idea would be to be happy with your very, very good score of 34, then donate the test fee to someone who otherwise couldn't take it. Now there's an essay that would catch my eye. That's one of the most insulting inequities of the American education system, the fact that they charge through the roof for standardized tests, AP tests, application fees ... there's a huge swath of the population denied entrance to college because they can't afford those costs.

(Maybe it's subsidized at your school, though?)

[the anglophile]

Hmm that does seem pretty cool! It would be cool to see the impact in someone's life from that!

[Marduk]

The ACT does not cost that much. Looks like $52.50, and there are waivers for students who cannot afford it. It already is subsidized. I recall that my AP tests were all under $100 as well.

Post college tests, like the GRE, on the other hand, are way more expensive. The GRE cost me over $200.

[Integrating Editor]

For reference, the Monson scholarship is only a few hundred shy of covering groceries, rent, utilities, books, and tuition for me for the entire school year, and that's after I paying tithing on the stipend portion. It covers anything a "full-ride" would. It does go to fifty students a year, half male and half female. There are no official cut-offs to be considered, and the comprehensive application is sufficient to apply for the Monson.

[Portia]

Yeah, I was hoping for the Hinckley but got the Heritage. The only Hinckley scholar I knew was The Chalice of Evil (remember her?!).

I think that hundreds of dollars is still prohibitive for poor and lower-middle-class families. It's all part of an anti-meritocratic college admissions arms race in this country that disgusts me. Other first-world nations consider promoting both university education for next to nothing (I'd rather be taxed than pay hundreds of thousands to private corporations like the College Board) and blue-collar apprenticeships. It really makes me wonder if we want to become more like Spain or more like Germany. If I ever have kids I'm going to be very honest with them about the cost/benefit analysis and not think that I love them more if I shell out for a bunch of ephemeral, name-brand silliness. If you work hard enough in high school, you shouldn't have to go into $100K of debt (one of my exes, who was in fact a Sterling Scholar) for an education. Not even professionals can save up that much if they have more than one kid, a house, want to eat food ...

[Whistler]

When I applied for the Monson scholarship (it was the Hinckley scholarship then) there was a cutoff, and I remember being rather upset that it was based on comprehensive and not academic GPA (I got a B+ in PE once which disqualified me by .01 GPA points).

[Violet]

The Anglophile, look at the 2010 matrix (Anne, Certainly linked to it in a recent answer). If you have a 34, you're pretty set unless you have poor recommendations from seminary teachers, ecclesiastical leaders, etc. The presidential scholarship is still 25 guys and 25 girls. If you want the 150%, I'd take the ACT again for a 35 (if you think that's doable for you) because the people I know who got it all had 35 or 36 ACT scores.

You can get more than tuition, but they usually have to be departmental grants or based on things you do. When I did Washington Seminar I had my full-tuition plus a grant from the Seminar. I believe members of marching band get 10-15% of tuition. Your basic scholarship application won't allow for more than 100% of tuition. However, if you have a parent who works for a church school, you can get full-tuition + the 50% tuition benefit for dependents.

[SmurfBlueSnuggie]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/77489/

I liked Ozymandius' economics-based analysis of dating.

When I took a game theory class a few years ago, my classmates and I got a lot of mileage out of comparing dating to game theory: it's a non-zero-sum and hybrid cooperative game with imperfect information, incentives to misrepresent, and moral hazard, and in some cases the game is infinitely long.

This is brilliant! I need to incorporate this into my next conversation about ward drama....

[No Dice]

Getting the Presidential Scholarship (now Monson, Hinckley when I started) at BYU is a total crapshoot even with great stats. I got it, but many of my friends with as good or better grades/test scores didn't. So don't be fooled about certainty—the fact of the matter is that 3.9x/35 v. 3.9x/34 may make no difference to them.

That said, if you had only a 30% likelihood of increasing your score to a 35 by retaking, and the increase were worth only a 5% increase in your likelihood of getting the scholarship, it would still be worth it. (The differential in value between having a Monson and having a full-tuition is obviously half of four years' worth of tuition, or almost 10k; 10k*.3*.05=150, which is three times the cost of the test—easily a good investment in terms of expected value, even after considering time-value of money.)

So, yeah, retake.

[Katya]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/77506/

I want to see this comic book.

[Whistler]

haha, I want to see it too! It reminds me of a comic I made of the Supershrink...

[mic0]

I'm under the impression that missionaries can, actually, do any of these things, considering they are adults and go on missions of their own free will, and the thing holding them back is largely a social contract. True or false?

[Marduk]

Well, they could certainly leave. But they won't let them come back (generally.)

[Portia]

The comment reminded me that that must have been what led to the unfortunate experience of a stranger acting like she was my grandma at my father's wedding. I think my father's wife's parents are on a mission at some Midwestern Mormon historic site. I guess it was a "critical family event" in different ways for different parties.

[Genuine Article]

I have a friend whose parents left for a mission in Germany when he was in college, and they just didn't bother coming home for his wedding. They had one of his sisters coordinate everything and host the reception.

[SmurfBlueSnuggie]

... they just didn't bother coming home for his wedding...

I'd probably not write my parents for the entire rest of their mission if that happened to me. Call me spiteful, but I'd be freaking ticked.

[pillowy]

#77541 - I really liked Anne's answer. I sincerely hope that the single mom does report those who are discriminating against her.

[Portia]

#77541 - I really liked Anne's answer. I sincerely hope that the single mom does report those who are discriminating against her.

I wonder if only divorcé(e)s are discriminated against, or if widow(er)s would be as well. (Assuming that both were looking for new housing.)

[Portia]

WOW. So many questions with negative or ambivalent views about childbirth/childrearing. Is the LDS community having its Feminine Mystique moment 51 years late?