Some Precautions before We Begin
If scholarships are easy, you need to ask why. If we are talking about websites, some websites wish to collect your information so that they can sell to you or share your information with advertising partners.
Some websites list marvelous scholarships, but contain many ads that might lead to unscrupulous offers. Money that websites make come from ads based on click through; sometimes websites list great information, but have very little control over what is placed as ads on their websites. One scholarship website that has great information also has links so close together that you might click through to something not as legitimate. I will discuss that later in this post.
Other sponsors really do want to offer scholarships where very little is involved to give back and to promote brand recognition.
If you are attempting to apply for an easy scholarship, be smart about it. I actually have a separate email just for contests such as the Publishers Clearing House, which I check, but I keep this address to protect my “official,” business email, the type I put on applications or sign up for legitimate services.
Create an email just to apply for scholarship contests. Write down the website, email address, username, and password. Don’t rely on memory. Keep it somewhere you can find it, such as a notebook or a note on your cell phone.
Some Easy Scholarships
$1,000 Cappex Easy College Money Scholarship, given monthly; deadline for this month: June 30, 2017
This scholarship is open to students who register and create a profile at Cappex, where they choose a student each month for one scholarship of a $1,000.
Selected criteria from webpage:
“To help you pay for college, Cappex provides an easy scholarship every month. Because a GPA isn’t everything, there is no GPA requirement and no essay to write! All you have to do is create a Cappex profile and tell us what you do in your free time. Click ‘apply’ and you may be the next winner of $1000!
Instructions:
Step 1: Create a Cappex profile, if you don’t already have one. One profile makes you eligible to apply for many different scholarships.
Step 2: Tell us about your extracurricular, leadership, and volunteer activities.
Step 3: Click on the scholarships tab, then click on “Cappex Scholarships”, find the scholarship in the list and click apply”
To search for more scholarships at this website: https://www.cappex.com/scholarships/
https://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/10257/10_words_or_less_scholarship_scholarship.php
$500 10 Words or Less Scholarship
Selected criteria from webpage:
“Scholarship Deadline: June 30th, 2017 ($500)
To be eligible for the 10 Words or Less Scholarship a student must:
1) Anyone who is between the ages of 14-25 who will be attending school in the Fall of 2017.
2) Submit answers to the essay question prior to the deadline.
3) This scholarship is provided by StudentScholarships.org. In order to apply for our scholarship follow these instructions:
Go to http://www.facebook.com/myscholarships.
Before or after writing your Answer you will also need to “Like” our Facebook page. Note we will only read the answers provided from people that have “Liked” our page.
On the left hand side of the page, you will find an area entitled “10 Words or Less Scholarship”.
In the comment section underneath the “10 Words or Less Scholarship,” answer the question.”
The second link above takes you the 10 Words or Less initial scholarship page.
Studentscholarships.org seems to have lots of great scholarships, but this page also hides its links among advertisements.
Avoid the $10,000 Mom Type of Scholarships and Why
Why do I object to the “$10,000 Mom Scholarship?” Some scholarships are legitimate in that they do give away the money, but they also collect a lot of information on you. I signed up for a particular scholarship like this (the rules said that I could give the money away to others), and the first month I successfully clicked through without anybody calling me. The second month I wasn’t so lucky, and I received a call from a for-profit college. I hung up.
Another student I advised to visit a scholarship website did click on the link, and they received a call from a for-profit college. This for-profit college told the student it didn’t matter what his GPA was or whether he had enough money to attend college. This set up alarm bells right away. Some for-profit colleges charge high rates and want to get students in the door to collect the money, use up all the financial aid the students qualify for, and then leave with no degree or a degree that won’t get them a decent job. Some for-profit colleges have questionable enrollment practices.
And if the student then wants to attend a more traditional college, the federal government will not pay for the same class at the traditional university, and often the classes earned at some for-profit colleges are not transferable to a traditional college.
If you are aware of this, you can maneuver yourself away from scams, but I now don’t click on “$10,000 scholarships” unless I am sure they are more legitimate. I also give out the advice, “Avoid the $10,000 Mom scholarship type ads.”
WHERE I FOUND THESE SCHOLARSHIPS
I found these scholarships in the following article, “The Ultimate List of Easy Scholarships.”
Some scholarships from this list, “Up to $5000 Americanism Essay Contest,” “$500 Beliz Law Firm Video Essay Scholarship Contest,” and “$5,000 Monthly Course Hero Scholarship Contest,” to name a few.
Keep your smarts about you and try out for those you qualify for.
If you don’t want to sign up for collegeexpress.com to see some of the scholarships, then open another browser window and google the scholarship name.
Avoiding Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams
Find below several articles and posts about avoiding scholarship and financial aid scams.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/financialaid
Federal Trade Commission information on how to avoid “Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams”
https://professionals.collegeboard.org/guidance/financial-aid/scams
Avoiding Scholarship scams
http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/scams.phtml
Scholarship Scams
How to Spot Scholarship Scams
A Scholarship Search Engine and a GAO study of fraud at for-profit colleges
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search
College Board’s Scholarship Search engine, “Find scholarships, other financial aid and internships from more than 2,200 programs, totaling nearly $6 billion.”
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-948T
“For-Profit Colleges: Undercover Testing Finds Colleges Encouraged Fraud and Engaged in Deceptive and Questionable Marketing Practices,” report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, released on Aug 4, 2010
From webpage: “Undercover tests at 15 for-profit colleges found that 4 colleges encouraged fraudulent practices and that all 15 made deceptive or otherwise questionable statements to GAO’s undercover applicants. Four undercover applicants were encouraged by college personnel to falsify their financial aid forms to qualify for federal aid–for example, one admissions representative told an applicant to fraudulently remove $250,000 in savings. Other college representatives exaggerated undercover applicants’ potential salary after graduation and failed to provide clear information about the college’s program duration, costs, or graduation rate despite federal regulations requiring them to do so.”
As the movement toward less regulation is implemented, there is a chance that fraud will rise once again in the for-profit college arena; it is the job of the consumer to be aware and to be wary.
Scholarship Tigers--Students Helping Each Other Find Money for College 
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