Great segment on Last Week Tonight about Miss America Pageant and Scholarships

The clip: LINK

They claim to be the number one provider for scholarships for women in the world, which is true. The 45 million, not so much.

John Oliver and the writers of Last Week Tonight give them credit for providing these scholarships, but do not think it's fair to give it to women who only fit the mandatory requirements of the contestants: 1) unmarried and 2)not nor never been pregnant.

Here we are to discuss the merits of the pageant and the opportunities it provides.

I have to deal with a lot of scholarships, being I am a student in graduate school. I have to say, that some of these scholarships are a lot more segregating than the Miss America guidelines. Many scholarships have an intended target and purpose. If you don't fall into that demographic or timeline you're stuck. For instance, one that I can get on is one meant for PhD graduate students in the last year who have nothing but their dissertation to write. The thing is, it's given out by the grad school, so you have to compete across all departments. That means you have to prove that your project is worthwhile among all science dissertations, arts, and others. So you have to write your proposal in a way that everyone can understand what your topic is, what you're trying to solve, how you're going to do it and why it's important.

Miss America seems a little easier than that, albeit similar.

I for one think the awarding committee in any scholarship program has the right to determine who the scholarship is geared towards.

All I have to say to that is, women and minority students have some of the most handsome scholarships in my department. I am OK with that. They are really good students.