What do you think of posse?

[Anonymous]

What do you think of posse? Is it good? How hard to get it?

[Anonymous]

It is excellent at supporting first generation college students. My understanding is that it's very competitive to get a spot.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for it and not only for first generation. Kid should have some good meaningful leadership experience.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe only around 4% make it to the finalist round, so pretty competitive.

[Anonymous]

It's very competitive but I do wonder about how they select candidates who need the support of the program. The one kid I know who is a posse scholar is biracial and from a fairly wealthy family. Both parents went to college and law/grad school.

I thought the program was to provide support (your posse) in the transition to and through college (+$$) but she was hardly the kind of student who would need that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's very competitive but I do wonder about how they select candidates who need the support of the program. The one kid I know who is a posse scholar is biracial and from a fairly wealthy family. Both parents went to college and law/grad school.

I thought the program was to provide support (your posse) in the transition to and through college (+$$) but she was hardly the kind of student who would need that.

I'm pretty sure they had an income cap. You sure she was rich? My kid was surprised at a couple friends who were Questbridge.

[Anonymous]

“ We believe that to foster leaders who better represent the demographics of the United States, we must broaden the pool of students who enroll at the best institutions of higher education. Across the nation, many students are overlooked because of structural inequality and an over-reliance on traditional measures of aptitude. Posse has developed an effective tool for identifying students who might be missed by traditional criteria but who can excel.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's very competitive but I do wonder about how they select candidates who need the support of the program. The one kid I know who is a posse scholar is biracial and from a fairly wealthy family. Both parents went to college and law/grad school.

I thought the program was to provide support (your posse) in the transition to and through college (+$$) but she was hardly the kind of student who would need that.

I'm pretty sure they had an income cap. You sure she was rich? My kid was surprised at a couple friends who were Questbridge.

The dad is a CEO, so, yeah very well off. But I looked at the program website and there aren't income limits, it is not a need-based scholarship. It's become a program focused on identifying leadership. Seems to have changed from the original purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's very competitive but I do wonder about how they select candidates who need the support of the program. The one kid I know who is a posse scholar is biracial and from a fairly wealthy family. Both parents went to college and law/grad school.

I thought the program was to provide support (your posse) in the transition to and through college (+$$) but she was hardly the kind of student who would need that.

Yeah my friend's son was nominated and they are not first gen and are very well off (two lawyer family). The HS made a big announcement of how proud they were of all the nominees and the list was made up of high achieving, wealthy kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's very competitive but I do wonder about how they select candidates who need the support of the program. The one kid I know who is a posse scholar is biracial and from a fairly wealthy family. Both parents went to college and law/grad school.

I thought the program was to provide support (your posse) in the transition to and through college (+$$) but she was hardly the kind of student who would need that.

Not sure why you think being biracial is a blocker to participating…

I can understand the income component to an extent, but you really cannot know someone’s income/finances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's very competitive but I do wonder about how they select candidates who need the support of the program. The one kid I know who is a posse scholar is biracial and from a fairly wealthy family. Both parents went to college and law/grad school.

I thought the program was to provide support (your posse) in the transition to and through college (+$$) but she was hardly the kind of student who would need that.

Not sure why you think being biracial is a blocker to participating…

I can understand the income component to an extent, but you really cannot know someone’s income/finances

When I first heard of Posse a while ago it was from hearing an interview with the founder. He talked about how difficult it was as a first gen student of color to go to college and not have anyone like him for friendship/support. So the original purpose of the program was to recruit high achieving, first gen students of color and send them to college together to be a "posse" for each other. So when I saw she was a scholar I was surprised because of the not-first gen/high income part but being biracial fit the "students of color" part.

Looking into it further I see that the goals of the program have completely changed. It no longer has anything to do with income/first-gen/URM. It's purely about identifying "leadership." Which is fine. But surprised me that they changed it so completely. Given the access to guidance and resources for developing "leadership" (however they conceive that) that wealthier kids have it seems like a program with that focus but no preference for other factors just becomes a program to give full rides to rich kids.

[Anonymous]

Posse is not income or race dependent. Maybe it was in the past. Our school counselor made this very clear.

[Anonymous]

The person I know who got a Posse scholarship also came from at least an upper middle class family and had attended private high school. And both parents had attended college and graduate school.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if it ditched the racial component after the Supreme Court decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if it ditched the racial component after the Supreme Court decision.

Possible but that decision doesn't prevent a first-gen and/or low-income consideration.

Questbridge is specifically for low-income/1st gen students (no racial component).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Posse is not income or race dependent. Maybe it was in the past. Our school counselor made this very clear.

It was like that already before the SC decision, as it was made clear for our DC22.