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For students preparing for higher education, there’s nothing more stressful than figuring out how to pay that tuition bill.
In addition to loans and grants, seeking scholarships can be a competitive and time-consuming process. There are thousands of scholarships available for students from all walks of life pursuing every field of study. Scholarships can be funded by corporations, nonprofits and private donors seeking to help their communities through educational assistance.
But beware.
Scholarship scams are very real, and those seeking financial assistance through scholarships need to be careful about how they search for funding and to whom they send personal information.
The Federal Trade Commission website offers information about warning signs of a scholarship scam. The most important takeaway? You should never have to pay for a scholarship.
There are scams in which the site asks its users to pay an advance fee for scholarship seeking services. Don’t fall for it! The whole point of looking for scholarships is to apply for a financial award — it doesn’t make sense to have to pay for that.
The FTC site also says there are companies which claim they can make you eligible for financial aid for a fee. Yeah, right. It says the only way to find out your eligibility for all government-related financial aid programs is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). That application is free, too.
The U.S. Department of Labor has a free scholarship search online at careeronestop.org. The Federal Student Aid website, studentaid.ed.gov, also has more advice for scholarship seekers.
Trying to keep afloat amid the sea of paperwork and information when applying for college financial aid can be difficult, but if you know more about the process, you can avoid becoming the victim of a scam.
Tax scam update
Last week I wrote about the IRS’s new method of collecting overdue taxes. The agency plans to utilize private debt collectors and anticipates scammers may try to use this new policy to bilk taxpayers out of their hard-earned money. The Better Business Bureau recently offered information about the following four companies contracted on behalf of the IRS, which are all Better Business Bureau accredited (i.e., they’re legit):
• CBE Group
1309 Technology Pkwy.
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
• Conserve
200 CrossKeys Office park
Fairport, NY 14450
• Performant
333 N. Canyons Pkwy.
Livermore, CA 94551
• Pioneer
325 Daniel Zenker Drive
Horseheads, NY 14845
Also: The deadline to file your taxes this year is Tuesday, April 18.
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