The American Dream:

Spend a fortune to win a scholarship that's worth less than half the money spent in achieving it.

Bill Pennington reports on the chase by young athletes and the parents for college scholarship money that's usually much less than the money they spend in its pursuit.

The rub comes from the fact that there is more money available to more students for academic scholarships than there is for athletic ones. Myles Brand, president of the N.C.A.A., is reported as saying that

“The real opportunity is taking advantage of how eager institutions are to reward good students …. In America’s colleges, there is a system of discounting for academic achievement. Most people with good academic records aren’t paying full sticker price. We don’t want people to stop playing sports; it’s good for them. But the best opportunity available is to try to improve one’s academic qualifications.”

Unfortunately, there is far less glamor in academic scholarship. After all, some athletes becoming professionals and make one to ten million dollars a year, not to mention the extra bucks they make from selling their image. (Someone might want to point out at this time that a few academics go on to become CEOs or owners of companies and earn hundreds of millions of dollars per year, perhaps even a billion or two, and own the sports teams that those millionaire athletes play for.)

Speaking of intellectual prowess: "We want to develop defenses that are capable of defending ourselves; defenses capable of defending others." — George W. Bush, The White House, March 2001.