Scholorama

The masters of the give-away program have a new gambit. Advised that gold-plated diaper changers, trips to Saudi Arabia, and dates with Marlon Brando have lost some of their public appeal, the industrial publicists have a new and more grandiose scheme, the multi-million dollar Scholorama. Combining the best features of the free ride, the American enthusiasm for youth, and the support of an articulate intelligensia, the device is sweeping the nation.

Two large programs are now operating: the General Motors National Program, and National Merit Scholarships, a $20,000,000 offspring of the Ford Foundation, born last September. Both plans have one stated aim--to draw more of America's potential talent into higher education, the highroad to an industrial desk.

The effort is expensive, and, as scholarship programs go, inefficient. This year 20,000 high school seniors spent six dollars apiece for Scholastic Aptitude Tests. On May 1, GM will notify the 100 winners that they get an average of $4,000 over the next four years to finance their college education. In other words, the students threw $120,000 into the pot for tests, GM threw a comparable amount in for publicity, and out came $400,000 for scholarships.

Compared to college administration of scholarship funds, the national Scholorama is financially unsound. If it has any justification, it is in bringing talent to college which would otherwise ignore the opportunity. The evidence indicates that it does this only to a very limited degree.

H.S. McFarland, a GM executive who studies the success of his prodigies, reports that the twenty at Harvard are doing as well as other scholarship students, but not substantially better. The national contest has been so far, little more effective than the less expensive college-administered plans. Some students of college ability, who would not have gone without GM awards, may be in college now. But the high administrative cost of these scholarships means that fewer students benefit from the funds.

If GM is trying to sell cars, the publicity given this program may make it worthwhile. But if General Motors, or the Ford Foundation, wants to attract more intelligent students to higher education, they must not only pay the bills but create the demand.

An Educational Testing Service study of high school seniors with college potential indicates only half want to go to college next fall. Of these, seven out of eight expect to find a way. Such statistics make it obvious that the real job is to motivate the apathetic, not finance the motivated.

This job can only be done by experienced and competent guidance counsellors, who can spot students with ability and show them both the advantages and the openings in higher education. If anybody really wants to get talent into the colleges, the money should be spent in the state capitols, lobbying for adequate counselling in every high school.