The price of attending college has risen to an extreme height. Many scholarships are available, but often they do not reward a student's academic and community service contributions. Qualities such as being a minority, coming from a broken home, or having peculiar characteristics have become the focus for the distribution of some scholarships.

Minority students definitely provide culture and diversity to a college, but it is unfair to provide a majority of scholarships to minorities solely on the basis of ethnicity. In a sense, giving ethnic scholarships is a type of reverse racism. A scholarship specifically for caucasians is rarely available. Why is it racist to not provide scholarships for minorities and not racist to not provide scholarships for caucasians? There are caucasians, as well as minorities, who are unable to attend college, but scholarships should be based on achievements and need rather than race. While trying to fix the economic racial gap, many are neglected.

Another unjust factor that is part of receiving scholarships is the coming-from-a-broken-home award. Although having divorced parents is definitely not a child's fault and many from broken homes deserve scholarships because of actual achievements, handing out money to students who are not as academically fit is hypocritical.

Scholarships are also given to those with abnormal characteristics, or are willing to do activities that have nothing to do with academic ability. A few examples of these ridiculous scholarships would be the fat scholarship, the goodie-goodie scholarship, and the pot (yes, this refers to marijuana) scholarship, the being named Zolp scholarship and last, but definitely not least, drum roll please, the $2,500 scholarship for those who wear outfits made from duct tape to their prom (go to ducktapeclub.com/contests/prom if you think I'm joking). These scholarships seem truly ridiculous. Hopefully the world will rise above giving money to students who prance around in duct tape and put this money to better use.

The purpose of providing scholarships is to provide students who are the most scholarly with the financial ability to afford college. Unless the etiquette books have been revised, appearing in public dressed in duct tape is not very scholarly, and does not deserve a scholarship. The awarding of scholarships for unfair and bizarre reasons has gotten out of hand. Scholarships should be refocused to a person's knowledge and potential.