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Has Stack Exchange Inc. ever considered the possibility of offering a scholarship to help college students?

I think this would be a great way to encourage and support those going into the software development field.

Disclamer: I am a high school senior interested in finding scholarship money.

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  • 38
    Nice disclaimer :)
    – krsteeve
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:19
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    Is this "Whoever has the most rep at the end of the school year gets the money?"
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:28
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    Whoever has the most rep at the end of the school year is not guaranteed to have the best marks... probably spent too much time getting rep :-).
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:30
  • Judging by the votes for this question, there might be 15 others who are also interested in a scholarship.
    – Simon Forsberg
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:32
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    On an unrelated note, Jon Skeet is going back to school to get another degree. --- Good luck getting that scholarship now.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:32
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    @ben: No kidding.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:33
  • Also, do universities accept Unicorn Dollars? I'm quite confident SO can get you lots of those, no problem.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:35
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    @psubsee2003 I was considering adding to the post that it may be best to not have SE activity be the only factor considered, as it could encourage voting fraud. (Yes, I know there are measures in place to prevent this, but I'd rather not test them by putting actual money at stake.)
    – Joshua Dwire
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:40
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    @JoshuaDwire The current rate is 3.1415926 : 0
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:45
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    They never paid for me to go party for four years, why should they pay you?
    – user1228
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 18:23
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    Weren't the dreams and souls you crashed as a moderator payment enough @Won't?
    – yannis
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 18:32
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    @Yannis You can't put crushed souls and dreams on the dinner table, y'know?
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 18:45
  • 3
    @Yannis: What good is crushing hopes and dreams if you can't brag about it over a keg with your bros ?
    – user1228
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 18:45
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    Would this be U.S. Only? If so, would that be fair? If not, how would it work?
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 19:47
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    @perhapsPekka If implemented, it would be neat if it could be offered outside of the U.S., but many U.S. companies only offer scholarships to students attending accredited U.S. colleges. (I have seen a few exceptions, but I can't find them right now.)
    – Joshua Dwire
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 19:51

2 Answers 2

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Not to my knowledge, no. I can't say for sure if it's something we would think about at some point, though I personally don't think we'd be any more likely to set up a scholarship than any other tech startup.

That said, if I were considering it, I'd at least think that limiting things to software development would be a bit odd. We have over 100 sites, many of which don't have anything to do with software development while still being quite valuable.

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  • Is this a related issue?
    – Andre Silva
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 19:40
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    @AndreSilva Oh hey, I forgot about that. That project was before my time. I'm not sure what all happened with it then, but we aren't working on any similar initiatives at the moment.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 19:45
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    +1 for not limiting it to software development, if we ever get around to considering it.
    – Laura
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 20:26
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This sounds like a great idea. I would be fearful of it being based off of reputation directly, but I would encourage it to be something akin to applying for a job in Careers 2.0. Link a sampling of good questions, other relevant experience, etc. It could be done initially for Stack Overflow, and expended to the entire site if possible.

Furthermore, I think it would be more interesting if people were allowed to either donate to a general scholarship fund, or perhaps sponsor enough money to look at the applications and award scholarships, much as the Careers 2.0 site works.

In fact, why not just call it Scholarships 2.0?

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    Yea, I like the sponsor idea. I have a feeling companies like Microsoft would donate?
    – Josh Crozier
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 17:48
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    How about calling it Pre-Careers 2.0? And, give Careers profiles to the top x candidates?
    – ughoavgfhw
    Commented Oct 4, 2013 at 22:16
  • for every n reputation donated to the scholarship fund, stack exchange puts up $1
    – Evorlor
    Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 21:18

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