You read recently about Navy providing free science, technology and math classes to qualified applicants.
As I said then, “free” is a pretty good number, but Buick is giving money away, according to email correspondent David Chaitt:
I’d like to extend an invitation to your readers to apply for the first annual Buick Achievers Scholarship Program funded by the GM Foundation, designed to foster excellence both inside and out of the classroom.
Open to high school seniors or high school graduates who will be first-time college students in the fall of 2011, the Buick Achievers Scholarship Program is geared towards students interested in pursuing a course of study that focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math), various design majors, marketing, accounting and finance.
Two levels of scholarship will be awarded:
i. 1,000 Buick Achievers Scholarships of $2,000 available for up to four years, and one additional year for those entering a five-year engineering program.
ii.100 Buick Achievers National Scholarships of up to $25,000 available for up to four years, and one additional year for those entering a five-year engineering program.All applications must be submitted electronically between February 7, 2011 and March 31, 2011.
To apply or for more information, click the following link: http://bit.ly/BuickAchievers
I imagine that most the readership here joins me in ineligibility for such a program due to superannuation. Which means that a fair number are sweating out college expenses.
Well, here you go.
Are you saying that you’re old?
I’m not eligible because I’ve already finished a course of study in Engineering. I won’t say how long ago.
Are these awarded strictly by merit, without consideration of sex or ethnicity?
Hmmm… the Buick Achievers Scholarship Towards Advancing and Readying Diligent Scientists?
How many times did you hit “preview” before publishing that one?
Twice.
If GM is so broke they needed the government to bail them out, why the hell are they awarding scholarships?
GM has been basically broken for years and years. At least they’re spending money now on something which might be actually useful and productive. No, I decided I would never buy one of their cars again after my Chevy Vega experience in the early seventies.
I have not purchased a car made by the UAW in over forty years, after working for GM and seeing the inside of the UAW on the line and in their contract “negotiations”.
I’ve been quite happy with Toyota & Honda ever since.
I didn’t have a Vega, but I did buy a car from Chevy that had the Vega engine in it. It had a hot spot between the two rear cylinders, as I recall, and the block cracked. It seems there was a design fault and that spot was not well cooled.
Add to that the fact that it used aluminum oxide coating of the cylinder walls, which wore through rather quickly and really started using oil, and you got a problem waiting to happen. The idea was OK, but the execution by GM was an atrocity.
Please email me if you want to know my Vega horror story. There was a recently relieved important general who had a Vega when he was young. Oh God I feel for him, and wonder where he went to buy the casefuls of oil.
I used to go to Sears and buy their oil by the case. It was the cheapest place I could find for straight weight oil. The busted block was actually a mercy.
Ha -I remember when most cars had to have oil by the quart added on a regular basis. Checking the oil was truly necessary back then.
Course, that was also when you could literally sit or stand in the engine compartment to work on the engine.
You have to look at the list of eligible programs: they are all geared towards car manufacture/selling. I mean, how does Marketing fit into Science, Tech, Engineering and Math? Full list of eligible degree programs:
Industrial Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Controls Engineering
Manufacturing Engineering
Plastic/Polymers Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Manufacturing Management
Production Management
Logistics Management
Operations Management
Business Administration
Supply Chain Management
Mathematics
Statistics
Engineering Technology
Ergonomics
Occupational Health and Safety
Labor and Industrial Relations
Industrial Hygiene
Finance
Accounting
Marketing
Graphic Design
Industrial Design
Product Design
Transportation Design
I was excited at first to see this, since my kid IS going to college next year, but her major (Genetics), while certainly ‘Science’ doesn’t count in the Buick’s eyes.
Makes sense, though, Buick is looking for future employees.
Because Dear Leader and the Dems allow them to do so.
Do you like your cell phone? Have you had laser eye surgery? Are you awed by the Hubble telescope? My husband worked on all of these projects and more and he is an ME.
I say way to go Buick! Pass out the scholarships.
In addition, thank you Lex for publishing them here. If my children were a decade younger this would have come in handy.
Babs, yes, yes and yes.
No, I am not fond of GM spending my tax dollars in this manner. GM (and the UAW) selling their golf courses and executive retreats and donating that money to scholarships would be preferable.
Hard for me to say “Way to go Buick”, as it is the same as saying “Way to go United States Postal Service” as I am subsidizing both with my tax dollars.
My advice to all here: Take the money and run.
Oh, I agree JTG. Had I a child going to college I would apply for the money.
Still, the end of that money hose is, to some non-trivial degree, tax dollars.
Too late for my son – MSEE 2010. Now working at the Lake City Ammo Plant in Independence, MO and working on a new control system for the Vietnam era Minigun.
Were I to do it over again it would be an Engineering degree followed by an MBA.
Funny, life doesn’t seem to offer many do-overs.
So I assume he can get me a good price on some match grade .223 and .308, yes?
In Texas, Gov. Perry was criticized for suggesting that the big university next to the Capitol offer a Bachelor of Arts degree for as low as $10,000 total package. The refrain was “what kind of serious education can you get for just $10,000). So with that in mind, does anyone think that $1,000, maybe $2,000, or big lottery winner $25,000 is enough to cover the expense of a BS in a STEM subject?
I’m sure any help in covering tuition is help. But this looks like the US government funneling money through GM to help people get hooked on the education drug. Your first class and books are free; then you pay for the rest for years later. Maybe decades if you do student loans, and you will likely take student loans if you qualified for the STEM scholarships at all.