Imagine how you would feel if your child scored a $54,000 scholarship to UCLA.
For many parents, it would be akin to winning the lottery.
After all, college ain’t cheap… well, unless you are a multimillionaire.
What? You don’t think the wealthiest of the wealthy have to watch their Benjamin?
It’s hard being rich and famous.
Just ask Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The rap mogul is considered one of the richest men on the planet with an estimated fortune of more than $550 million.
With all that cash flying around, you’d think Combs could easily fork over the money needed to fund his son’s college tuition.
You’d think.
Turns out, Diddy Daddy’s son, Justin, is planning to pursue a degree in higher education at UCLA… only he’s doing so on someone else’s dime.
According to reports, Justin recently accepted a full Division 1 scholarship to play football for the UCLA Bruins. For the record, the award is only given to the most elite high school athletes who have succeed on the field and in the classroom.
Last week, Diddy’s 18-year-old son graduated from high school with a 3.75 GPA; however, his academic and athletic achievements are being marred by critics’ complaints that he should decline the scholarship, and instead have his rich as sin parent foot the bill for his college education.
Basically, some people are peeved that the son of a superstar, who’s worth a half a billion bucks, is getting a free ride to college when there are other less fortunate kids out there who genuinely need the financial help.
“Should a multimillionaire’s son be able to get a free-ride scholarship to a state school that has been struggling with budget cuts and raging student protests?” screamed one headline.
“Should P. Diddy’s son return $54,000 college scholarship?” asked another.
Still, Combs seems unfazed by the brouhaha recently tweeting:
“Justin is a shining example of what hard work, determination and a strong mentality can achieve. I am honored to call him my son and am happy that he is fulfilling his dream.”
Look, I’m all for kids being rewarded for hard work and stellar academic effort. However, I don’t think tweeting shots of yourself posing on top of the $300,000-plus Maybach your daddy bought you for your 16th birthday screams “sympathize with me.”
What do you think? Should Combs pay for his own tuition instead of taking the free ride?
Related Articles:
Can Parents Ever Get It Right?