Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Free Scholarship Applications Or Paid - 4 Places a Fee Makes Sense

Many experts recommend only submitting free scholarship applications because scholarships that require a fee may turn out to be scams. See below for exceptions to this rule.

Scams can include paying for a bogus scholarship, or hundreds paying a large fee, that turns out to be a small award netting the founder thousands. Or, you could pay just to find scholarships when in fact you can probably find most of them yourself with free scholarship searches online or with a few books. But there are legitimate times you will have to pay a small fee.

ONLINE APPLICATION

Rule Exceptions: When a Paid Scholarship Application is Good
You can focus only on free applications, and you can win several. If you have significant talents in a few areas, though, you may find all of your best scholarship options require a paid application. Take a look below at a brief list of exceptions, or when it makes sense to pay a fee to apply for a scholarship:

1. Legitimate but new or underfunded nonprofits: I have found that many new nonprofits may begin their life without much money and few contributors. They may ask for an application fee to help fund the programs they offer, like a scholarship for single parents or something similar, or just to keep the lights on. Check on the organization before you donate or pay the fee, and remember it will help a good cause. Typically, you don't find too many of these. Unfortunately, the scammers ruin it for the good ones that just want to help more people.

2. Music or Ability Scholarships: Sometimes, a scholarship requires a sample to really understand your ability or gift. Your sample may then require viewing or listening by different reviewers at long distances, and postage may cost a lot. To cover their costs, they may require a few dollars.

3. International Programs: While this falls into a similar slot as applying to get into college, some international opportunities have a fee, some don't. If you plan to study in England, Australia, Spain or somewhere else, (and I encourage you to look into it) you can expect to pay a fee.

Just think of all the things you can do, though. Make life-long friends, see castles, visit beaches, go to museums, hike mountain ranges and see it all. I think you'll like it.

4. Competitions: Similar to talent scholarships, nearly all competitions will charge. I just read an invitation to a small satellite competition with a 5 entrance fee. Why? To compete, you have to attend and present a paper at their conference. Writing contests often have a fee as well. Also, pageants fall into this category. Miss California, Miss Chicago, Miss Syracuse... Expect fees for entering pageants.

You'll also find that science fairs require an application fee. Since they have to gather all of your experiments into one room to judge them, the fair will have to rent a large hall, using up the donations that would otherwise go to scholarships. You wouldn't want that. A small fee helps out.

I'm sure you can think of a few that don't fit these categories, but in general, these will help you evaluate your scholarship application opportunities.

While you can stick to just free scholarship applications, sometimes a fee makes sense. If you find a situation that seems strange, do some research. Look up the organization. See if you can find last year's winners, or where the group operates to check on their status with the attorney general.

In some cases, you won't want to go ahead. In others, you'll see that the organization has been around for years, and awards scholarships every year to a bunch of good kids. With some caution and some research, you can weed out most of the bad apples.

And even after applying to the contests you like and others on the list above, go ahead and apply to the free ones, and finish that degree.

Free Scholarship Applications Or Paid - 4 Places a Fee Makes Sense

ONLINE APPLICATION

No comments:

Post a Comment