Justin Combs (Son of P.Diddy) gets 54K Scholarship to UCLA - People say he should give it back?
From CNN:
Justin Combs worked hard in high school to improve his football game and earn a 3.75 GPA . He recently received a $54,000 merit-based scholarship to UCLA, where he’ll play football. In April, Forbes named Justin Combs’ dad, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, the wealthiest artist in hip- hop. Some say the family should return Justin’s scholarship, arguing that Combs should pay for his son’s education and taxpayer money should go to students with greater financial need. Other say Justin Combs earned the scholarship through his grades and athletic ability, and deserves to keep it.
I say he earned it and is trying to make his own name and get out of his fathers shadow. STFU and let him keep it. Thoughts monkeys?
Wow, that's pretty awesome. He earned the scholarship, let it be up to him whether he wants to keep it or not. I hate when people are always trying to tell other people what to do.
Well you see right there you have various political motivations, anti hip-hop sentiments, and so forth, but all of that stuff - it's really at the mercy of Justin's prejudice...all you have to do is start with the absolute basic - the relationship with his father. We NEED to make ABSOLUTELY sure that Justin does not follow in the footsteps of his father and breaks up his father's empire when he inherits it. Jay-Z is the ONLY thing standing in the way between P. Diddy and total hip-hop dominance. This CANNOT happen.
nicely done.
We need to go deeper. A dream within a dream that's within a dream, 3 levels deep. Now lets find an architect.
Fuck that. Just more people whining for handouts they don't deserve.
Congrats to him, leave it to him if he wants to keep it or not.
I think he deserves it and should keep it.
He should keep it.
Keep that shit.
So is this an athletic scholarship or academic scholarship?
Dude this a bet from UCLA that Combs will contribute cash later when his son graduates. He seriously does not need the money, he is milking the system to the utmost. Personally, I would give it back and mandate that it be used for a low income and smart scholarship student(s), that is that social win-win. Unless his father is not footing the bill for his tuition, and he has to take loans. If Justin is really trying to get from under his fathers shadow then doing the financially unselfish this is the way to go. Diddy is notorious in the industry for shady and overly strict contracts.
Its millionaire's welfare and cronyism. Seriously, tax payer money going to support a millionaire's child. How and why the fuck is that ok.
Also, this reminds me of Lil Romeo getting a basketball scholarship to USC a few years back. Master P's stated net-worth is north if 400 million.
So was it OK for Jordan's kids to get scholarships? What about Peyton and Eli? Steph and Seth Curry?
My general point is that a parents financial standing has to be a factor in awarding scholarships, especially at publicly chartered institutions. Its insane to have millionaires children--which have all the resources to be successful---get scholarships student while the poor yet talented student gets shafted with debt. I am not advocating socialism jut sanity.
Romeo was a walk on.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120485166974418241-lMyQjAxMDI4MDA…
"But next fall, the 18-year-old will suit up for the University of Southern California, a program in the tough Pac-10 conference. And he will receive a full basketball scholarship valued at $44,400 a year."
Do you have any other intel on this that contradicts this point? and Remember is father's stated NW is north of $400 million.
I believe it has to be athletic. Last month I was accepted to UCLA as a transfer student with a higher GPA and I didn't receive any merit money. I didn't receive any FA at all and I mostly believe the only reason I was accepted was so I could pay the higher out of state tuition fees.
Either way the kid did work for it but $200,000 is chump change to someone like Combs. I've seen a few pictures of the "Prince" and his watch probably costs more than that.
Below is his scouting video. I'm impressed they did not show him playing a pass until the one minute mark. At least the kid can come up and play the run.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/H1VffDJNB0o
Um...the very first highlight on this video is a pass play.
John madden over here
Anyways, my point was you really don't see a HS CB coming up and playing the run.
I don't even think athletic scholarships should exist in the first place. The fact that he comes from very wealthy family only makes it worse.
^He was actually a "Ride the coat tails" on with that other guy (his name escapes me), seeing as how Master P sold them as a package deal
Demar DeRozan http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/andy_staples/03/13/usc.li…
Yeah, it sounds like an athletic scholarship to attend the university academically at no charge. This isn't a tangible cost to the school--it's simply accounting. If the school actually had to fork over $54,000 then I'd say it's kind of questionable, but these scholarships are not cash--they are given a value based on what a non-scholarship student would pay for the same product/service. The fact is, the value of the scholarship is way out of whack with its actual value to the student in the open market because the student loan market has flooded higher education with liquidity, which has artificially pushed up the cost to attend college.
Besides, as has been pointed out, it's actually UCLA investing money today for future returns--the expectation is that he and his family will soon or sometime in the future become major donors to the university.
The problem with your assessment is that, yes while Justin's scholarship is book entry, meaning no cash changed hands, at the end of that day poor students are not getting those book entry adjustments and instead have to take out loans to afford the university. So there are real costs being born by the least able to afford the tuition (however inflated) and that to me is ethically repugnant.
Unless you can build a yield and probability model that shows how the rich's family's donations connected with admissions directly support the poor students at the university dollar per dollar.
I wish I could find the article for you--read it several years ago about how Duke University was kind of a nothing university 50 and 60 years ago. The article explained how Duke went after rich students and lessened the entry requirements for them. The reason behind this was pretty simple--rich kids become rich adults and their rich families donate lots of money to the university. A university endowment is and has always been a primary source of university rank.
Many universities do this, but on a smaller scale. It is well known in academia that wealthy alumni are the bread and butter for these universities (particularly private ones) from the scholarships to science wings that they provide. I'm not going to build an Excel model but from a rational, high level view it's quite likely that the future value of donations and scholarships to the university is greater than the value of the scholarship provided.
And at the end of the day, this is a merit-based scholarship. By their very definition they are given to students need blind.
Yeah, you want all the rich alums you can get.
So much booty coming his way. And if he can dance like his father.... what do you guys think? 100 girls? 200 girls in college?
The majority of people on WSO know what working hard means. This kid earned this shit, without the help of his father. Let the kid become his own man.
it seems like he earned it, or at least that you can't prove that he didn't earn it. unless you want to move to a less holistic UG admissions process, it seems pretty black and white
there's a reason it's called merit-based aid
Some of the posts, see directly above, are so out of touch. Granted I went to UCLA, but for the sake of this argument its totally irrelevant. It's an athletic scholarship. He was offered scholarships at other schools and choose UCLA. If you are against him receiving the scholarship you are against athletic scholarships in general, separate argument.
Tons of kids around the country get athletic scholarships and come from well to do families. Maybe not 500 million but nonetheless families makes well into the hundreds of thousands a year if not more. Yet there is no out cry when they get athletic scholarships.
This is such a suckers puff piece. I can't believe anyone on this site would be actually fall victim.
Irony is that P Diddy current and future donations plus any tag along marketing that comes from him being associated with the program will far out weigh the scholarship. Not that I'm saying why the kid got the scholarship but it will be a long term benefit.
In my first post on the subject I acknowledged that UCLA is making a bet on Puffy donating, so there is nothing "ironic" about that point. For clarity sake I am against millionaires being on the dole. Justin could still be admitted to UCLA, play ball, have diddy as the unofficial spokesman and still have the scholarship cash go to a much needier person. Him giving the cash back to UCLA is the moral high road here.
Like I said there should be a rule that if your parents have x net worth (what ever the sum, still have to figure that one out) you will not be able to receive scholarship monies, but will be have all right and privileges of a traditional scholarship winner. I call it the Combs's rule.
This is why colleges require SAT scores with applications, and this is why there is no mention of an SAT score in the article.
Merit (in this case, athletic ability) Scholarship =/= Need Based Scholarship
They want him to play and are making an investment which will hopefully pay dividends forever...straight into the school's endowment.
edited: Also, (http://www.princetonreview.com/need-based-merit-based.aspx)
Athletic scholarships come from the athletic department. It has nothing to do with some poor student or need student or public money being given to the kid. It has to do with he got one of athletic scholarships based on their recrutiing.
Even Combs did not get this money it would not go to some poor student who needs FA. It would go to another athlete. This money from the sports program and its donors directly not the school.
Fine, let the cash go to a poor STUDENT athlete. Anything wrong with that?
Nobody's arguing that he didn't earn the merit-based athletic scholarship (under whatever the criteria for the scholarship is), we're arguing that the system is fucked up and people like him shouldn't be earning scholarships.
I personally don't believe in athletic scholarships. Like I said above, giving a star athlete a full ride is a great investment from a business perspective for the school. However, education should not be run like a business (at least at public institutions).
I can understand having need-blind merit-based academic scholarships (eg. Rhodes scholarship). But when it comes to athletics, I don't think it should be allowed. I'm not saying that athletes don't deserve scholarships, just that whatever scholarships they get should take need into account.
Again I'm talking about public schools. Private schools can do whatever the fuck they want. I just don't want my taxpayer dollars funding full rides for student athletes with rich-ass parents. Or rather I'd prefer that money going towards bright honors students from low-income families.
Your tax dollars don't. Athletic scholarships are "paid for" (there is no real tangible cost) by the athletic department, which is largely self-funded.
I think people are confusing performance related pay and a scholarship. The purpose of a scholarship is to lighten the burden of cost for those that are in the top tier for their given skillset. College athletics, for some perverse reason, is a big thing in the US, I guess it gives the primates something else to shout about. Therefore to stay competitive, teams need to attract the top talent.
I also don't know the guy's financial situation. If his dad has told him to earn his own way in life, then he clearly will need it. If he's chucked him a few mil to keep the lifestyle ticking over, then I'd keep the scholarship and make a donation (either him or dad) for $54k to the university help poor kids fund. He gets good PR, the school doesnt lose face, the whingers shut up and he's just handed back $54k, while not looking ungrateful but also symbolically keeping the money.
It could also be an investment by the college, hoping to get it back tenfold from dad if his kid makes it as a footballer.
T
Haha
Gotta say, it is pretty refreshing to see the offspring of a celebrity succeeding in school and life on his own and not riding the coattails and becoming another kardashian on society.
Please don't throw MS at me, but don't you have some kind of poor student-aid program in the US? I'm just curious, I don't fully understand the system. I agree that athletic scholarships shouldn't exist. That said, if it's an athletic scholarship why the fuck would income matter? Yes, there's a lot wrong with "let the cash go to a poor student athlete". They should be able to choose the player they want and need. The coach should be able to pick his players and design the best team he can to win. And let's not get started with the fact that some donors give money to uni because they like their football team.... The argument you're making can be applied to anything. Let's say we do what you say. What do we do after college? Surely only poor players should get drafted, they worked hard, not as hard as the number one in the draft, but hey, give them a break they're poor. I mean, if your dad or your brother are/were NFL players you don't need the money, why should be allowed to play? And after a couple of years you should get fired, you have already made enough cash to survive, give way to another poor player. Or as an example we are more familiar with, rich people shouldn't get jobs at BB banks right? I mean, there are definitely very talented people who are poor. Maybe not as good as a 4.0 GPA Harvard grad with 3 internships, but hey, fuck him, his dad has a HF so he'll survive. And this goes on and on to the point where the rich guy's kid isn't allowed to do anything besides live off his dad's money. My point is the kid born poor is not guilty of being poor, but the guy who's dad is a millionaire isn't responsible for it either. He should be treated as anyone else. College admissions, jobs etc.. should be handed to the most capable guys. Period. Discriminating someone because they're rich is as bad as discriminating someone because they're poor, just like discriminating someone because he's black is as bad as discriminating someone because he's white. Don't get me wrong, I'm ALL for helping people without resources. But I don't believe in handouts, once you get to the point where you are giving people equal opportunities, then it's to each what he earns. And this applies in this case, since anyone had the same opportunity as he did to play football and earn that scholarship. Like I said, I only care about hard work and talent.
Let him keep it. Even if it was from family connections, the university will recoup it several times over from his attendance.
Not exactly. It is a piecemeal aid system. Public schools are cheaper if you are in state. The federal gov also administers Pell grants and subsidizes student work (however, those are not enough to pay UC tuition for an instate student).
Some states, like CA, have subsidies for needy residents.
Otherwise, it comes down to the college, and that can vary considerably. You won't pay a penny at Harvard if your income is under $70k...but NYU will charge you ~$60k regardless of income. In general, public schools have less need based aid than privates; of course, there are exceptions (e.g. NYU).
Merit based aid has fallen out of favor at most top colleges in lieu of need based. Athletic scholarships still exist, but they vary dramatically school to school (and gender).
If this was say Mitt Romney's kid or Some wealthy white man's child there would be an absolute uproar that he was taking money away from kids who truly need it. You'd see (and I use this title loosely) the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al "Not So" Sharpton marching down Sunset Blvd like it is Selma.
Let the kid keep it. Enough giving out participation trophies to everyone, this is why our society is messed up. go out and EARN IT for once.
Iona Prep isn't an easy school either, so kudos to the kid
Life is not fair cut it out with all this fairness bullshit. "It isn't fair" Who cares. P. Diddy's son worked hard and become a D-1 athlete he earned his scholarship. What about Joe Montana's son or any other athlete's child. Basically you're saying take away scholarships if you have enough money. Ridiculous.
Kim K. is behind this. Diddy has been banging her recently and this is her payback. Diddy will end up donating millions to UCLA and in return they will give him an honorary doctorate in Music and will name a building after him. That is the way the universities work. HBS gives out scholarships generously to the MBA students. In return, they get $90 million every year in alumni donations.
My bad. Kanye was banging Kim K. on Diddy's yatch. So maybe this guy earned the scholarship himself.
There is a high level of ignorance on display in this thread. If UCLA didn't offer a scholarship, he would have chosen a school that did. There is a marked difference in being a scholarship athlete versus a walk-on who is paying their own way. The scholarship athletes get a bunch of benefits that the walk-ons do not.
Also, public funds don't pay for athletic scholarships. The privately funded athletic department does.
FTW
/thread
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THIS IS A MERIT BASED SCHOLARSHIP THE KID GOT FOR FOOTBALL. College Football is a full time fucking job + you still need to live a life + study and pass.
Some kid from East LA isn't going to miss his need based scholarship because of this. The kid is 18 years old. His dad doesn't have to give him jack shit. And the son doesn't have to use his dad for jack shit. Get over it.
I had to ask myself: just because he's rich means he cannot enjoy a reward that most successful HS students enjoy??? Come on now, His mother is a baby momma in North Jersey so he is in a demographic that is underrepresented in our nation's universities!!!! He earned this so he should be proud...he'll be the "Silverback" on UCLA campus because he not only has a rich father, but he's a gifted athlete and quite intelligent. Good for him!!! Individuals like him push others to make the most of their opportunities. Donating the amount to a charity other than Diddy's foundation would be nice and could boost his public image, but that is his decision to make. I'm sure many are glad to have Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton, but Americans should also be glad that some children of celebrities take the college route and don't just make sex tapes to establish a name for themselves.
it's a fucking merit based scholarship so it means he earned it by his efforts. If we are to take this back from the kid because he comes from a rich family, does that mean we should take jobs away from people that come from rich families because they don't need the money?
If he were to receive a need based scholarship, I would agree to march up to Jay-Z's pad with pitch forks and demand that money back.
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