Scott Butchart, Dean of Students, grades 10 and 12

“I have been here 33 years and [BHS scholarships have] certainly been going on since I’ve been here. The first scholarship was established in 1920. So, it’s been a century.”

What is the Brookline High School scholarship process like?

Typically, about ⅓ of the class applies. We have three criteria for winning a scholarship. One is GPA. One is activities, mainly within the school but also outside of the school sometimes. Our third and most important criterion is unmet financial need.

How are there so many scholarships available?

We have a lot of money and a lot of scholarships; there are 125 scholarships and many of those scholarships have many recipients. There are a lot of different funds because prior to a few years ago you could start an independent fund held at the Town Hall with a fairly small amount of money. This means that some of the scholarships are quite small. Other scholarships, especially the older ones, have grown to be large amounts of money. This gives us more options, we can give several scholarships from the same fund, or larger amounts. Recently, the Brookline Community Foundation has begun an endowed fund, so people can choose to contribute to that. We benefit by the interest from that private fund because they are able to invest the money and get a greater return.

What is the most important thing for seniors to know about this scholarship process?

Our main goal is serving kids with unmet financial need. Some scholarships are relatively small and some scholarships are very narrowly defined. Some scholarships are given to people who are affluent, but that’s the minority of the scholarships and rarely very much money. We try to avoid the idea that some are merit scholarships. We invest in the idea that all scholarships are given based on who has the greatest unmet need and still qualifies for the characteristics of such merit scholarships.