Grants, Scholarships, and MORE

Scholarship Scam Information

Here is some standard advice on what you should consider when trying to avoid scholarship scams:

• You should NOT have to pay a fee for the scholarship. This includes any type of “processing” fee for the application.

• Avoid providing sensitive personal information like Social Security Numbers or Credit Card Information.
  
  
• Be careful of any organization that “guarantees” you a scholarship.

• Watch out for the messages that you may receive from an organization that says that you “were selected” for a scholarship.
  
  
• There should be information readily available about the organization providing the scholarship. If there are very few details about the scholarship and organization sponsoring the scholarship, then please be very careful.

• If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably IS too good to be true and IS a SCAM.

List of Scholarships that we BELIEVE should CONCERN you.


DegreedUp.com Scholarship

I thought that this scholarship was questionable as soon as the information about this DegreedUp.com scholarship appeared within my college library email. I suspect that most colleges, and more institutions, received the same email.

The first issue that concerns us is the lack of information on the owner/sponsor of this scholarship. Who    REALLY    IS “DegreedUp.com?”

DegreedUp.com gives you two options to apply for this scholarship. If you click on the link to the application, you will see that they want you to send “$10 (cash only to help defray mail handling, document shredding, and product costs)”

THIS IS PRACTICALLY THE FIRST RULE IN AVOIDING SCAMS: YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING EXCEPT MAYBE POSTAGE FOR THE STAMP TO SEND THE APPLICATION.  Also, it is very interesting that DegreedUP.com wants CASH. Our first impression is: THEY HAVE TO BE KIDDING. 

The second option in order to apply for this scholarship is for you to download a supposedly free trial of an eBook titled “How to Use Your Time Wisely in College.” You are suppose to email your thoughts of the eBook. To make this long story a little shorter, you are asked to use a service called “TrialPay” to obtain a free trial within a specific number of days. “If you do not want to use TrialPay there is a quick pay option available.”

This option sounds almost as QUESTIONABLE as option one where you send $10.00.

Until we hear otherwise, we advise you to use caution and you should be concerned about this specific scholarship.