How to write a tactful email

You should be honest with him and direct, "Dear Professor, I was awarded $5,000, but I would greatly appreciate if you did not send out a department-wide email congratulating me with the monetary amount listed because it would make me feel like I was bragging. Additionally, due to my current economic situation, I feel it would be best to not disclose the amount as to not exclude me from any future departmental scholarships. I really appreciate your interest and pride in my scholarship award, but please let me know if you are going to publicize the dollar amount. Thank you, Student X"

You should tell the department head the amount and also apologetically and honestly explain your reticence. The departmental head can easily find out the amount of award by contacting the scholarship scheme directly (since he wrote you a letter of recommendation, he knows which scheme this is), and the scholarship program probably publishes it as a matter of public record. Note this well: for a professor, writing a standard, banal, obviously-actually-lukewarm-if-you-read-between-the-lines-and-get-to-the-bottom-of-it letter of recommendation for a student is very routine and not a big deal for them. But for a professor, writing an excellent, enthusiastic, excited and personally supportive and knowledgable letter of recommendation for a student - the kind that picks the student out of the pack gets the student a good chance of winning scholarships and job offers - this is special and is a big deal for them .... and its more of a big deal the higher status the professor is (like being chair of department!). The professor will feel that she or he is staking their reputation on you in front of some of their peers (or higher-ups) and that they are giving you something special. You want the chair and the other professors to continue to be reliable future sources of excellent letters of recommendation. Don't jeopardize it with behaviour like this that they may consider odd and inexplicable.

While I think your concerns are valid, you have much more to lose if you burn your bridges by not telling him. This is obviously a big deal to the chair if he has asked you about it three times. I see your concern as far as not getting the other scholarship, but if you don't play ball here, I would kiss any chances of getting it goodbye. The department is going to want to give their scholarship to someone that will make them look good. A student who refuses any publicity is the opposite.

I can see your point of view. From the department head's point of view, though, your winning a scholarship is not only your personal triumph, it's also a feather in the cap of your teachers and the department. It's good publicity for the department to announce the award, and it might in fact help the department get additional resources. Unless you could have gotten the scholarship without the department's help, then it's not strictly your personal business. Besides, whoever awarded the scholarship will probably publish a list of recipients. Word will get out somehow, even if it's not from you. And if you're applying for an internal scholarship, the scholarship committee might want to know what other scholarships you have received and the amounts. They have a right to ask for that information and to refuse to consider you for the scholarship if you won't disclose it. If their scholarship is based on need, then they would have to take into account your resources, including the scholarship you've received. If you really want to keep the amount private, my advice would be to talk to the department head (in person, not by email), explain that you are uncomfortable with a public announcement of the amount of the scholarship, and see whether you can reach a compromise. But I think it's pointless to try to evade the issue. And like it or not, the amount of scholarship and other academic awards is a marker of prestige in the academic world. If your friends can't swallow their disappointment and help you celebrate your success, then they're not great friends.

If you are on a Ph.D track and have intentions of pursuing an academic career, you will have to get used to these types of e-mails being sent out. In my particular school, e-mails are regularly sent out regarding faculty awards, publications, and receipts of grants. Amounts of any prizes are included along with the name of the award or accolade, the organization responsible for it, and the description of the accolade as well as how many are awarded each year and traditionally to whom. It is so common it may as well as be standard procedure at most institutions. I imagine it's even more standard are doctorate awarding institutions precisely because the success of the students is considered success of the university. Being a private person is nice and all, but I imagine the award itself is public. It's entirely possible the organization who granted the award would post your name as an award recipient as well as your university's name and the prize amount would be included. Maybe they won't, but many such award giving programs do. The information you are wishing to keep private may already be public. As for not wanting the other students to "feel bad" --- unfortunately, that's just a part of competition among colleagues. If you gain a tenure track professor position the year you complete your degree, but the other students also completing their degree in the same year applied for the same position and didn't get it, would you "feel bad" in the same way? We had two people from the same department at the same school interview for a faculty position. One of those people was given an accepted an offer of employment. The other was not. I assure you the person who was given the job wasn't terribly upset that the other person didn't get it. The scholarship you received is similar to this. Only one person can get it. It was you. I wouldn't crow too loudly of your department mates, but there's nothing wrong with saying, "Yeah. I received this scholarship," either.

You got that scholarship in part because your faculty recommenders built skills fundraising for their students in the past. The single most important datum that helps them become better fundraisers is the monetary outcome of their fundraising. You wouldn't have won this scholarship without skilled faculty support, built in cooperation with generations of students before you. Be cooperative. Tell them all about the scholarship they helped get for you.

Don't lie! Maybe there is a way to mention your practical concerns yo this professor. It seems like you are largely worried about not getting the departmental scholarship because you just got this one. In fact, he knows already, so if it's going to compromise your position in that regard, it probably already has. In my experience, it shouldn't. People tend to pile up such awards because they are seen as successful and have already been judged a good risk. But in any case, don't suggest that you are worried about him blabbing to everyone. Just maybe find a way to ask if he thinks you still have a shot at the other scholarship. As far as your classmates go, knowing the amount isn't going to change anything, I don't think. Congratulations, by the way!

So I've been applying to scholarships lately and one of them has been a scholarship offered exclusively in the department. This may be why he keeps asking. In order to be considered for many scholarships, the award is contingent on what aid you have received elsewhere. It's pretty typical to ask for this information. The reason being, aid is often offered based on need, and one can only assess need based on the total award from all sources.

I feel that I am very qualified for this scholarship but am afraid that if the amount of money I was awarded was disclosed, I would no longer be considered for the departmental scholarship. If this is true, and you don't tell the department about the scholarship, and subsequently get it, you will have received it on false premises. That would be enough to burn your bridges completely in the department, conceivably up to the point of getting kicked out of the major, if anyone finds out. Hiding your outside aid doesn't change the issue of whether you meet the requirements to be awarded a particular scholarship, and would be extremely dishonest. But I doubt that $5000 is enough to disqualify you from a scholarship, I think department-internal scholarships tend to be merit-based (only the faculty involved could determine this, though.) You are within your rights to request that the chair not email people about it. But I do think that perhaps you should consider the possibility that you are blowing it out of proportion. I understand that $5000 is a lot to you, and you are justifiably proud of it, and it will look great on your cv, but in the scale of academic scholarships it is fairly moderate, and I don't think your peers will hate you for taking it away from them.