How Do You Know if a Scholarship is Legit? – GradPlan
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How Do You Know if a Scholarship is Legit?

There are TONS of amazing scholarship opportunities. See how to avoid the scams.

Finding the Right Opportunities

Did you know that approximately 20% of scholarship “opportunities” you find during your search are likely fraudulent—and that number is growing. With the rise of scholarship scams, it’s important to ensure you spend your time and energy applying to valid opportunities.

Use these checklists to avoid scholarship scams:

Initial Scholarship Vetting

If the scholarship you’re considering includes any of these items, do not proceed with the application

  • Request personable banking information
  • Requires Social Security Number (SSN)
  • Requires an application fee
  • You are “guaranteed to win”
  • Scholarship funds are sent to winner via a wire transfer (Wester Union, Paypal, etc)

Detailed Scholarship Vetting

If the scholarship you’re considering includes any of these items, do not proceed with application

  • Hosted on blog site
  • Include grammatical inconsistencies or unprofessional language
  • Requires sharing on social media for “likes”
  • Contains invalid or out-of-country phone number or email
  • Provides no contact information for follow up
  • There is no evidence of previous winners
  • Requires you to send detailed financial or tax information to an secure email
  • URL does not match company’s (search WHOis.net)
  • Address given doesn’t list the business information listed
  • Requires applicants to come up with solutions to a hypothetical legal or business scenario or create a new product that would otherwise be considered the applicant’s intellectual property

Ask for Help

Searching for scholarships can be difficult, hopefully using these checklists will help you avoid scholarship scams and begin applying sooner! If you don’t know where to start your scholarship search, we recommend talking to an advisor at your school, or try our resource page.

Categories

Scholarships
Tips for Applying
Recommended Resources

Categories

Scholarships
Tips for Applying

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."

Malcolm X, human rights activist