You just very elegantly wrote everything I see wrong with affirmative action and education. If the intent was to make a difference for those suffering economic hardship, then it should be labeled as such and promoted so those who would not qualify (due to parental income) do not compete. I suspect that the winner of your scholarship did not attain the same academic level of achievement as your first choice but was most likely only in greater economic need?

>I may have just learned something already. I did not know solution stars were awarded by the original posters. I ass-umed they were awarded by UT management. Wrong again, Mike?
>
>On the whole "personality of the year" thing -- what a wooden phrase IMO, something lost in translation -- I will say this, at the risk of misunderstanding. I would like to see someone new win. Sergey is the Michael Jordan of the UT, answering your questions authoritatively almost before you've asked them, so anyone who takes this as a diss of Sergey is quite wrong. He is the best, and I have said that to him. But even Michael Jordan didn't win the MVP award every year. By all rights, by all rational measurements, he should have, but it was spread around. And it didn't begin to dent MJ's reputation.
>
>Let me come at this from a slightly different direction. I was on the scholarship committee for a trade organization for a while. Not a major organization (keep this in mind). The first time I sat in on their annual meeting to review scholarship applications, I got an education myself. There was this one particular HS senior whose application and record were glowing. I said wow, how can we not make her one of the recipients? One of the other committee members, vastly more experienced than me, said here's what you're not getting. She's got scholarships up the ying yang already, she said, and she was bound for college the day she was born. What we are trying to do here is make a difference. I bristled at being dressed down, in front of a group no less, but she was right.
>
>So I suggest we elect someone new. This would not in any way diminish Sergey's pre-eminence, which I don't think many of us would reasonably disagree with. But where can we do some good? Who is a serious, dedicated contributor here who is qualified for the award in every true sense and could use the credential besides? Let's make a difference.
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>Mike
>
>
>>>There is no report on number of solutions, only on the number of postings.<
>>
>>IMHO, number of solutions is not an indication of anything. Many people either do not know or do not bother to give stars for solutions.
>>
>>~~Bonnie
>>
>>
>>
>>>>>I'd like to be able to pick persons from a presented LIST, rather than being limited to the ones that clearly come to mind. Can this be arranged?!
>>>>>
>>>>>Criteria for being in the list could be:
>>>>>- Number of original posts. And in what forums.
>>>>>- Number of replies.
>>>>>- Number of solutions.
>>>>
>>>>Well, without waiting for an integrated solution, you can see some of that information in reports, which you might open in a separate window.
>>>
>>>There is no report on number of solutions, only on the number of postings.
>>>
>>>I'm wondering if I can add another person if I already voted? I know there is another person who often answers in SQL Server forum besides Sergey, but I just could not remember his last name...