2. Never give out a credit card or bank account number to submit a scholarship application or par­ticipate in a service.

3. Spend the time, not the money.

4. Never invest more than a postage stamp to get information about scholarships.

5. Nobody can guarantee that you’ll win a scholar­ship. Programs that make promises may not be legitimate.

6. Legitimate scholarship foundations do not charge application fees.

Information from www.finaid.org and www.studentaid.ed.gov.