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Fraudulent scholarship operations often use official-sounding names containing words such as federal, national, administration, division, federation and foundation. Their names often a slight variation of the name of a legitimate government or private organization. Do not be fooled by a name that seems reputable of official, an official-looking seal, or a Washington, D.C., address
If you win a scholarship, you will receive official written notification by mail, not over the telephone. If the sponsor calls to inform you, it will follow up with a letter in the mail. If a request for money is made over the phone, the operation is probably fraudulent
Be wary if an organization's address is a post office box number or a residential address. if a bona fide scholarship program uses a post office box number, it usually will include a street address and telephone number on its stationary.
Beware of telephone numbers with a 900 area code. These may charge you a fee of several dollars a minute for a call that cound be a long recording that provides only a list of addresses or names.
A dishonest operation may put pressure on an applicant by claiming that awards are on a first-come, first-served basis. Some scholarship programs give preference to early applicants. However, if you are told, especially over the telephone, that you must respond quickly, but you will not hear about the results for several months, there may be a problem.
Be wary of endorsements. Fraudulent operations claim endorsements by groups with names similar to well-known private or government organizations. The Better Business Bureau and other government agencies do not endorse businesses.
If an organization requires that you pay something for a scholarship and you have never heard of it before and cannot verify that it is a legitimate operation, the best advice is to pay nothing. If you have already paid money to such an organization and find reason to doubt its legitimacy, call your bank to stop payment on your check, if possible, or call your credit card company and tell it that you think you were the victim of consumer fraud.
To find out how to recognize, report, and stop a scholarship scam, contact:
The Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20580
Web site: www.ftc.gov
The National Fraud Information Center can be contacted by phone at 800-876-7060 or online at www.fraud.org. The Better Business Bureau maintains files of businesses about which it has received complaints. You should call both you local BBB office and the BBB office where the organization in question is located; each local BBB has different records. Call 703-276-0100 to get the telephone number of your local BBB or log on to www.bbb.org for a directory of local BBBs and downloadable BBB complaint forms. The national address is:
The Council of Better Business Bureaus
4200 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22203-1838
There are many wonderful scholarships available to qualified students who spend the time and effort to located and apply for them. However, it is advised that you exercise caution in using scholarship search services and when you must pay money, always use careful judgement when considering a scholarship program's sponsor.
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Miami Dade College's School for Advanced Studies Named Among Nation's Best in Newsweek Magazine's Top High Schools List
Miami, Monday, June 15, 2009 - The only full-time dual enrollment public high school in Miami-Dade County is enjoying top billing this week thanks to prominent recognition in Newsweek magazine's recently released list of the nation's top public high schools in 2009. Miami Dade College's (MDC) School for Advanced Studies (SAS), ranked 15th among public high schools nationwide, making it the highest ranked school in Miami-Dade County to receive the distinction of appearing on the list.
The school, designed for academically talented 11th and 12th grade students who seek a rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) and college curriculum, is no stranger to the limelight. In fact, SAS has been on a rapid ascent in Newsweek's annual top high schools list.
Since 2006, the school has risen from 1,210th in the nation, to its current position of 15. And, last year, the school received the highest scores on the science portion of the FCAT exam, surpassing other high schools in Miami-Dade County.
'The school's success is due in large part to the support Miami Dade College provides our program,' said Guillermo Muñoz, principal of the School for Advanced Studies. 'Our students are very lucky to have the opportunity to attend a high quality institution such as MDC while still in high school. The experience they get by attending college for two years is something that they point to as a key to the successes they have come to enjoy once they graduate from our program.'
The Newsweek magazine rankings were derived by calculating the number of AP, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests taken by students at a school divided by the number of seniors graduating the same year.
Many SAS students graduate with both an Associate in Arts degree and a high school diploma as a result of success on the AP exams, CLEP exams, and summer school at MDC.
Established during the 1988-89 school year as a small program located at MDC's North Campus, SAS is a combined effort of MDC and Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS). Since opening more than 20 years ago, it has expanded to a total of four MDC campuses: Homestead, Kendall, North, and Wolfson. Each semester, students are enrolled in three college dual-enrollment courses, taught by MDC faculty, and three AP high school courses, taught by M-DCPS faculty.
One hundred percent (100%) of SAS students graduate and continue their academic studies at colleges and universities in Florida, throughout the nation, or at top institutions abroad. Some have been accepted at such prestigious universities as Princeton, Cornell, Brown, NYU, Yale, the University of Chicago, Emory, Stanford, University of Edinburgh, and all the public universities in the state of Florida.
'We will work hard to make sure that SAS continues to bring recognition and accolades to this community, the public school system, and the college,' added Munoz.
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- Colleges and universities often , grant credit for a wide range of prior learning, including standardized proficiency examinations, portfolio assessment of experiential learning, local challenge examinations, assessment by a panel of experts, correspondence courses, and courses offered in your workplace
- Not all our taste buds are on our tongue; about 10% are on the palette and the cheeks.
- Since 1890, about 100 million Americans have taken courses at a distance, including well-known people such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Walter P. Chrysler, Walter Cronkite, Barry Goldwater, and Charles Schulz.
- In 1999, 14.7% of adults 17 years old and older with 8th grade or less education participated in some type of adult education program. Participants with some education between 9th and 12th grades (without a diploma) 25.6%; and 34.8% of those with a diploma participated in an adult education program.
- The US has the highest documented per capita rate of imprissionment of any country in the world. About 2% of white males, 4% of Hispanic males and 10% of black males are incarcerated. There are more black males in prison than in colleges in the US.
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