No need to compare/contrast Landon with Gonzaga. Very little overlap there in regards to applicants. The comparison with Bullis is more appropriate.

If you read closely it is a scholar-citizen award. It does not seem to be purely academic. Landon gets slammed for not having good citizens so maybe this is an attempt to bring in high character boys.

I don't see a problem with a floor of 50. My DS is straight A's, good character etc but not the best test taker. I'm not looking at Landon but I commend the effort to try and find the best applicants.

Landon has been concerned about attrition as students enter the Upper School, so this is one response, no doubt.

Landon Bashers generally do not have to look far or long to find fodder. This "scholarship" is nothing more than a thinly veiled effort to compete with Bullis, who has had some success getting Landon boys to trek down River Road. If you can't beat them, well then . . .

Anonymous wrote:

The description is so vague that it can be used for any students . . . which means that it WILL be used for athletes. Landon is not resigned to being number 2 in lacrosse in the area to Gonzaga (which the prior poster mentioned), and this is a way to give some extra money to athletes in general and lacrosse players in particular. This is probably also a response to Bullis, which has been recruiting like crazy in football-basketball-lacrosse and handing out money freely in the process.

If you look at the criteria on the web site and not just the news story you will see it is not vague at all.

Students must complete the standard Landon application process by January 15, 2014.
Students must score a minimum of 50 (percentile rank) on each section of the SSAT or score a minimum of the 5th stanine on each section of the ISEE exam. Scores must be received by January 31, 2014.
Students must demonstrate strong character and be outstanding citizens at their current schools.
Students must submit the Landon Scholar-Citizen Program essay and additional recommendation by January 31, 2014. (The Landon Scholar-Citizen Program essay information is located here.)
Students must interview with a member of the selection committee by February 24, 2014.

Glad you added this, but I'm laughing out loud that they are pretending a scholarship that sets a floor of 50% on the SSAT could even be remotely considered to be for academic excellence. More than ever that makes it clear that "academically accomplished" means "can get by enough academically to stay eligible for the sport that we are awarding the hidden athletic scholarship for."

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn't cost Landon anything - so they get $20K instead of $30K - just add another kid to the small class size and no one notices.

I expect other schools will follow suit.

Other schools will probably take a wait-and-see approach first to see how it plays out over a period of 3 to 5 years. I would think they will look to see if they lose more students to Landon than they have in the past, for example. Since much of school choice is geographic, you might see the schools in DC, all of which are very competitive in admissions, take a pass on this. And yes, one thing that people will be interested in is whether this is a way to get around The IAC ban on athletic scholarships. Unless Landon publicizes the recipients, however, that may not be something other schools would be able to effectively monitor.

The description is so vague that it can be used for any students . . . which means that it WILL be used for athletes. Landon is not resigned to being number 2 in lacrosse in the area to Gonzaga (which the prior poster mentioned), and this is a way to give some extra money to athletes in general and lacrosse players in particular. This is probably also a response to Bullis, which has been recruiting like crazy in football-basketball-lacrosse and handing out money freely in the process.

If you look at the criteria on the web site and not just the news story you will see it is not vague at all.

Students must complete the standard Landon application process by January 15, 2014.
Students must score a minimum of 50 (percentile rank) on each section of the SSAT or score a minimum of the 5th stanine on each section of the ISEE exam. Scores must be received by January 31, 2014.
Students must demonstrate strong character and be outstanding citizens at their current schools.
Students must submit the Landon Scholar-Citizen Program essay and additional recommendation by January 31, 2014. (The Landon Scholar-Citizen Program essay information is located here.)
Students must interview with a member of the selection committee by February 24, 2014.

It really doesn't cost Landon anything - so they get $20K instead of $30K - just add another kid to the small class size and no one notices.

I expect other schools will follow suit.

Anonymous wrote:Typical Landon basher that does not know anything about athletics. The IAC is a weak conference in the major sports minus lax. No IAC school has a need to recruit. It is a 6 team league. Back to original point..this is a great idea to freshen up the pool of applicants. Brings Landon tuition closer to Gonzaga and makes it a steal compared to STA.

To get athletes. The description is so vague that it can be used for any students . . . which means that it WILL be used for athletes. Landon is not resigned to being number 2 in lacrosse in the area to Gonzaga (which the prior poster mentioned), and this is a way to give some extra money to athletes in general and lacrosse players in particular. This is probably also a response to Bullis, which has been recruiting like crazy in football-basketball-lacrosse and handing out money freely in the process.

This is not some sort of knee-jerk "Landon-bashing" but rather based on experience. Among other things, I've seen an email to a student enrolled at another school from a "person close to the Landon lacrosse program," which encouraged the student to apply to Landon over the summer and explicitly said that money was available.

Maybe these awards will all go to brilliant scholars who are terrible at sports but, again, if you look at the description it talks about "academically accomplished" which reads like loophole language to me.

The scholarship includes current 8th graders at Landon which is tells me they want to keep their top students.

Typical Landon basher that does not know anything about athletics. The IAC is a weak conference in the major sports minus lax. No IAC school has a need to recruit. It is a 6 team league. Back to original point..this is a great idea to freshen up the pool of applicants. Brings Landon tuition closer to Gonzaga and makes it a steal compared to STA.

Anonymous wrote:It seems like a new program based on the information on the Landon site. Lots of college use this model and I hope other schools follow suit which I suspect will happen. I know St. Andrew's has some sort of scholarship outside of financial aid.

http://www.landon.net/page.cfm?p=4004&newsid=1307

I bet they will use it to give sports scholarships.

It seems like a new program based on the information on the Landon site. Lots of college use this model and I hope other schools follow suit which I suspect will happen. I know St. Andrew's has some sort of scholarship outside of financial aid.

http://www.landon.net/page.cfm?p=4004&newsid=1307

I read an earlier thread on merit scholarships but no private schools had them, just FA. Looking at STA and Gonzaga but may add Landon to the list if we can apply for this scholarship. Do any other schools in the area offer merit scholarships (advertised or under the table)?