What is a College Scholars Program and What Does That Mean for the Rest of the Student Body?

Many students in college are totally unaware of a program that is gaining momentum in college campuses across the country. That program is called the Scholars Program. The Scholars Program selects a small group of students who have applied and been accepted into the school with high grades and gives them special privileges. The fact of the matter is that not much separates a student who gets accepted into this College Scholars Program and those that don't.

The difference might only be 10 or 20 points difference on the SATs. Another troubling thought is that not all high schools are the same. In New York City especially, there are special schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science which are on a much higher academic level than a normal local high school. The courses in these schools are much more difficult and as a result, the Grade Point Averages of the students are usually lower than they would be if they had attended a local high school instead.

Scholar Program students are also allowed to have special advisors and get to see them whenever they need to; unlike the rest of the student body which must cater to the schedules of the professors and can only see them when they have office hours which is usually once a week. Moreover, Scholar Program Students are able to miss the General Education Requirements that students across the nation must take like science and math despite being a political science major which has nothing to do with science or math.

Students who meet these Scholar Program requirements receive an unfair advantage on a college campus. They get to select the best dorm halls on campuses and they get to select classes first, before even the seniors on a college campus get to select their courses. Once you are in the Scholars Program, you only need to maintain a certain GPA in college and you will remain in the program for the duration of your college academic life. The Program really is unfair especially when it comes to registering for classes.

Now I am all for giving the academically gifted students a scholarship but allowing them to register for courses way before the student body registers for classes is totally unfair. Some seniors get screwed out of the classes that they have waited 4 years to take because the students in the scholars program take these classes first. There should not exist a hierarchy on a college campus where some students are treated unfairly. When it comes to structure on a college campus with dorm rooms and classes where seniority prevails and ranks as it should, the structural order cannot have any exceptions be made, especially to Scholar Program students.