Scholar is one of the few jobs I find where your ability to play it is highly correlated with your ability to write macros. The main benefit of scholar is that it can go from nuking to curing in an instant assuming you have "/macro set #" commands in your macros to take you from nuking pallets to healing pallets and to enfeebling pallets.
A simplistic view of my macros is pallet 1 would be a curing pallet 2 enfeebling and pallet 3 ice nukes. You then reserve 2 spots for activating light arts and taking u to the healing pallet and activating dark arts taking you to your ice nuking pallet. You can also tie in storm spells so that whenever you cast thunderstorm, for example, it will take you to a thunder pallet.
As complicated as the macros are this allows you much more flexibility while playing the job. Scholar has an excessive amount of spells and keeping track of them is probably the hardest part. But when you do the macros right you can easily play as a nuker while farming pop items and switch over to helping cure for the NMs.
While there are limitations to scholar the flexibility to go from support to damage in an instant is what has drawn me into enjoying it so much. People can compare Sch to Blm Whm and Rdm all day but in the end I can do it all and I can do it quite well.