Many online scholarship services are a scam, and students shouldn’t have to pay to receive scholarships, said John Curl, director of financial aid and scholarships.
During the 2004-2005 school year, almost half the student body (13,041 U students) received some type of financial aid. Despite these figures, a small handful of students still believe they have to pay an agency in order to get a scholarship.
These agencies are scams, Curl said.
“Students have paid up to $75 to have Web sites find scholarships for them,” he explained. “But what they don’t realize is they could have found the same scholarship at another place for free.”
Curl wants students to be aware of false advertisements and scholarship hoaxes that they may run into when applying for financial aid for Spring Semester and any time throughout the year. He said the information students pay for is usually the same information they can receive for free at the financial aid office. “The easiest way to receive a scholarship is to apply through our financial aid department or through your specific college,” Angela Wimmer, U scholarship manager, said. “The only requirement to receive any sort of award is that you have to be a matriculated, degree-seeking student.”
Having to pay when applying for a scholarship is fraudulent.
Also, a company’s guarantee that students can “automatically” receive a scholarship is a con, Curl explained.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, complaints about scholarship scams increased six fold, from 670 in 2003 to 4,486 in 2004.
“The students that get caught up in (scholarship scams) are the ones who can least afford to pay for it,” Curl said. “Their parents are desperate to find money for school, and they think that this is the only way to pay for it when, in all actuality, there are easier ways they could have gotten the money for free.”
According to a written statement by the FTC, some companies guarantee scholarships using sales pitches that tell students that they are required to pay immediately or lose the scholarship opportunity.
These reports are simply not true, Curl said.
“Whether more students search for scholarships really depends on the economy itself,” Wimmer said.
When the economy goes up, a student’s financial situation improves, and they will have a decreased amount of interest in scholarships. If their financial situation worsens, their need for a scholarship increases, and they become willing to search for scholarships at any cost, she said.