Originally Posted by MechEng83

I think the big underlying issue is that FIRST and Teams view the Dean's List award very differently.

Teams want to recognize the students with the most/best/lasting contributions to their team and the broader FIRST community, often whom are seniors who have a proven record of dedication.

FIRST wants to promote the award as something akin to a National Merit Scholar award, which universities like to tout in their recruiting numbers.

It's prestige for the deserving student, vs. prestige for the universities who recruit Dean's List winners.

For 2 years, FIRST has recommended teams choose Juniors, as they would be given preference, yet teams kept nominating Seniors -- and Seniors kept winning.

I won't presume to know the inner workings of FIRST headquarters, but while Frank has been the herald of positive changes, I feel like this change was forced in by other powers, as it's clearly part of an agenda which doesn't mesh with the intentions demonstrated by teams in their nominations, or even the judges for the award who continued to recognize seniors despite the award's stated preference for juniors.

Originally Posted by swethaly

I understand why they're doing it, but it defeats the purpose of the award. In the words of Woodie Flowers, "You get what you celebrate", and the description of the Dean's List Award states that its goal is to recognize the exemplary students who best express the ideals of FIRST. In that scenario, the expressing FIRST ideals and being an exemplary student is celebrated, so that's what FIRST would get. However they've been turning the award into a coveted title for college applications. In this scenario, FIRST celebrates focusing more on individual efforts than being a role model for others, so FIRST will get a bunch of students who only want an award for their college applications.