Scholarship Scam or Valuable Service -- How Is One To Know?

Expert Advice provided by Scholarship Experts.

Article by Alyson Shutts Meeks

Let's be adult here and face this issue head on. Scam. It's an ugly word. But it's been in the press a lot lately. Every scholarship site and government site has a warning about fee-based scholarship services. "If you have to pay money to get money, it's probably a scam," they warn ominously. "Spend the time, not the money" is another one that really sounds good until you think of services you pay someone to perform because you don't have time.

Think yard work. Filing taxes. Hair styling. House painting. Car repairs. Fast food. And the list goes on. You often have someone else do the job, whether it's preparing your will or washing your car, because that someone can do it better and faster than you can do it yourself. In other words, you turn to someone with expertise, and you get results with minimal time invested.

That's what scholarship search services claim to be: EXPERT at what they do. And what we at ScholarshipExperts.com do is provide an extraordinarily current and extensive scholarship search service. Why? In one word, empathy.

That's right -- empathy. We know how it feels to be a high school student who wants that college education but is looking at a cost of thousands of dollars. We attended universities on scholarship, and it was great! In fact, ScholarshipExperts.com really began in 1997 when one enterprising college student (who had received ample scholarship dollars) noticed some of his buddies struggling to buy textbooks. They were simply under-financed for their college experience. He grew determined to start a free scholarship search service on the Internet, and others who shared his conviction joined in, including former educators and a college advisor.

But alas! We realized that nothing is free, not even a scholarship search service. Someone has to pay, whether advertisers or investors or customers. So we decided that people who care most about the service were the best folks to help pay for it. That was the genesis of ScholarshipExperts.com, the only scholarship service worth paying for.

We're not trying to scam you. Why should we? We are a legitimate business operated by professionals who know what we're doing. One article on scams claimed that fee-based scholarship services were often "home-based businesses run by individuals who know nothing about financial aid and who do not compile their own database."

Frankly, we think home-based businesses are great, but we are not one. We have a real office and pay real rent. We were in the academic and financial aid environment when today's high school students were in pre-school. We compile our own database of awards -- just ask our team of research specialists who do it. In short, we work hard just like you; we're moms and dads, friends and family members just like you. We believe that we can provide an exceptional service at an exceptional price without becoming con artists in the process. We know how you feel about the prospect of funding a college education, and we're here to help. That's it, pure and simple.

Experience has taught us that obtaining scholarship information can be a daunting process. Even if a student is sure that he or she can qualify for an athletic scholarship, for example, where do you start? Call the major universities on the phone? Check out some web sites? Ask around? This is where we come in. We're pros; we know how you feel; we think we can be your primary resource for finding scholarship dollars. So check out other services if you must, but we think you will return to ScholarshipExperts.com. We're the experts in this domain, and we're worth paying for.

For additional information about this topic, visit www.ScholarshipExperts.com.

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