Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Counselor's Desk

By Donald Crane

Around this time each year, many students receive letters from people or agencies who are offering a scholarship search -- for a price. The letters usually begin with the statement that so many scholarships are available for which one is "eligible to apply." The key words here are "eligible to apply."

The letters do not state a student is eligible to receive the scholarships. They usually state that one "may be eligible." Do you get the point? They never commit themselves.

Recently, some juniors and seniors have received letters from an agency which announces a seminar on scholarship opportunities and encourages both student and parent to make their attendance "top priority."

They stress it's on a "first-come, first-served" basis and indicate time and resources are limited. They mention no money, and they include a form asking for personal income information for the parent to complete. The letter ends with the urgent message to not miss out on the financial award deadlines.

Within five minutes of reading this letter, I opened my mail and found a letter from the Arkansas Student Loan Authority alerting counselors to caution students about scholarship scams!

The Federal Trade Commission has announced a crackdown on phoney scholarship search services it says have taken tens of millions of dollars from prospective students and their families and provided no or useless information.

Now, I do not know whether or not the agency mentioned above is a scam. My advice for anyone who has received the letter is to trash it. There is no point in getting involved with anything which sounds even questionable when there are free sources of scholarship information.

A couple of weeks ago when we were testing students in the lower grades, Paul Noesser met with the seniors and had them complete a survey which will provide free information concerning scholarships and financial aid. Our media center has a program which will help one search for scholarship funds. The internet is another source.

Some "scholarship search" addresses are:

http://www.finaid.org and hhttp://www.rams.com/srn.

The Arkansas Student Loan Authority is sending me application forms for a FREE search for Arkansas students. When completed, scholarship profiles will be sent directly to the student with instructions on how to follow up with the sponsoring agencies.

It will be up to the student to request applications from these sponsoring agencies. Parents, remind your senior to see me for the free search forms.

Now is the time seniors should be applying for the ACT if they have not taken it or want to improve their scores for scholarship standing. It's too late for the test on October 26, but the next one is December 14. Students must register by November 15.