Beware scholarship scams

They advertise in newspapers, at high schools and anywhere they think youth and their parents are likely to gather. Some proffer what seem like reasonable charges, perhaps $100 for a full consultation, while others charge up to $3500 for their services. This amount could finance an entire university education in Zimbabwe or a year of tuition in South Africa.

Currently, one organization is touting a scholarship campaign more akin to a lottery. Students are encouraged to deposit $10 into the consultants account and then send in the receipt and their educational qualifications in hopes of being the lucky one to win a full scholarship to an undisclosed American college. Another organization flies in and meets with clients in a local hotel ballroom, charging them to complete and submit application forms. These same applications can be submitted for free directly to the universities online.

The bottom line is: no student ever has to pay to apply for a true scholarship. The first sign that you may be a victim of a scholarship scam is if you are asked to pay in order to qualify.

There is nothing wrong with paying an educational consultant to assist you to negotiate the maze of global educational opportunities. But be careful. How much are the self-professed experts charging and could you be accessing the same information they are providing for free on the internet? Do they represent an entire educational system? Or do they work as agents for a few select universities?

An educational agent is paid a certain sum for each head they recruit; thus, s/he is trying to get as many young Zimbabweans to that institution as possible, regardless of whether or not it is an appropriate match for them.

Another area of caution in working with a paid consultant is to be wary of those who encourage students to cut short high school educations in order to take advantage of once in a lifetime opportunities. These offers are usually pushed on athletes who leave high school in Zimbabwe after O levels or even earlier to fulfill their sports star dreams. They come to realize too late that their opportunities would have been much wider and deeper had they completed their A level high school education in Zimbabwe and only then applied for a full athletic or academic scholarship.

Zimbabweans do have free information at their disposal. Several embassies offer free information, such as The British Council at 16 Cork Road, Belgravia, EducationUSA Advising Centres in Harares Eastgate Mall and the Bulawayo Public Library. Most countries offer full information about application procedures online, such as www.studycanada.ca, www.ieasa.studysa.org and www.educationusa.info. – Harare@educationusa.info