schol·ar·ship [skol-er-ship] –noun

1. learning; knowledge acquired by study; the academic attainments of a scholar.
2. a sum of money or other aid granted to a student, because of merit, need, etc., to pursue his or her studies.
3. the position or status of such a student.
4. a foundation to provide financial assistance to students.

[Origin: 1525–35; scholar + -ship]

It’s one thing to get a full scholarship to college “because of merit, need, etc.”. It’s another to sign up for  junk mail from a company that gives away a few hundred dollars in ’scholarships’ to ‘lucky winners’.

A fascinating report by Steven Levy in Newsweek analyzes the personal information gathered by sites like FastWeb (”The best way to get free money for school!”) or those that offer token rewards for posting videos like BrickFish (”Express yourself and get rewarded”). These sites only offer scholarship information to people willing to part with personal details that are sold on to list brokers or give minor incentives which will only pay a fraction of a college education.

The reality is most scholarship and financial aid money comes from the schools themselves.