<p>My daughter has brought home a pile of local scholarship applications, several of which ask for social security numbers and copies of tax returns with all schedules attached. These are in the $250-1000 range. Is this standard operating procedure? I'm a little hesitant to just turn over such personal information to the local Elks or teacher's association. I'd feel a little better if it were just our FAFSA SAR report with social security numbers redacted. I realize if you're asking for money the organization is free to make the rules, I'm just surprised. The scholarships were listed as non-need based but I think they are need-sensitive if they want tax returns. My daughter understands the privacy issues but would have liked to have something at awards night which is a pretty big deal for seniors. Am I being overly cautious?</p>
<p>I share your concern. Five years ago oldest S filled these out. The information required seemed to vary from scholarship to scholarship.</p>
<p>We are undecided as to whether or not high school senior S should apply to these or not. I don't like the thought of the high school staff on the scholarship committee knowing about our finances. If you think there is any sort of confidentiality, think again. I have regularly seen FERPA violated in teacher lounges (as a substitute teacher and volunteer).</p>
<p>I too share this concern, especially with my DD still attending the same HS. So far I have only seen one scholarship that requested anything specific like financial info or even a SS#, but I'm undecided as to what we should do about it.</p>
<p>It is a shame that all these local scholarships are requesting that info before they award the money. We request SS number only after the award decision is made, but we tell applicants up-front that they need to be US citizens or legal residents and must be able to provide a valid social security number to receive the award. We're required to report awards in excess of some amount ($750?) to the IRS -- I think via a 1099, but we're certainly free to report smaller awards.</p>
<p>D had one recently with a financial page that I almost didn't fill out since this is not supposed to be a need based scholarship. Instead we filled out parts of it. It didn't have social security number on it but it did ask how much we could afford for college (left blank) and a few other similar questions. Truthfully I don't think it's any of their business if its not need based.</p>
<p>I agree. </p>
<p>On the other hand, some that do not ask for any verification prompt me to think that people can so easily jot down figures that may look good, but may not be accurate.</p>
<p>My D has filled out some, too, but I told her to leave out the SSN part. You can give it to them later when they announce that your D gets selected for the scholarship.</p>
<p>I serve on a scholarship board giving amounts in the range of $1000-$2500. We do not ask for any financial data. We ask for a statement from the student as to why they need the aid and trust them to be sincere. We have no desire to wade through the personal info of other families. The criteria for the $$$ are both merit and need. Given these comments I'm happy with the way we do it. The only problems is the amounts we can provide barely make a dent in today's cost.</p>
<p>Barrons, anything - truly - helps. When my D got one for $200 from the PTO - smaller of course, then others she got - we looked at it as "one less quarter of books to pay for". It's all good!</p>
<p>ELKS works! i'm at the national level right now (guaranteed 1000$ a year for four years).</p>
<p>Just assume that any information you write down will pretty much be public in a small town/school community. And realize that there is always someone who is willing to use the information to climb the social ladder or gain favor. My daughter's school had a terrible problem with volunteers in the admin offices reading medical and/or special needs information and then gossiping about that information with other parents. It became so bad that the nurse requested volunteers not open or even touch her mail.</p>
<p>When I took over handling small scholarships for one organization, I was appalled at the lack of privacy. As mentioned above, merit only people were asked for financial information and the evaluating committee (who knew most of the applicants) were able to see the names of the applicants while reviewing the applications. I changed that and excluded anyone with seniors at the HS from award decisions. Still, it isn't hard in a smallish town to figure out who you are talking about when you see, "ASB President" in the EC part of the application. If I had a senior, I would put income ranges down if the scholarship is need based and I would leave the social security, etc blank along with a note that all such information would be made available should the student win the award.</p>
<p>TaylorSailor, wow, those parents should never have been opening school mail in the first place!</p>
<p>I agree it's something of a risk. I have a junior, and we're not there yet, but I have been on scholarship committees and could see that there could be quite a bit of financial information floating out there. We asked students to self-report family income but did nothing to check it. I like the advice to only report SSN once you've been awarded the scholarship. That seems reasonable.</p>
<p>D applied for several and recieved a community scholarship last year. Her choices were very much limited to scholarships where there were no requirements for demonstrated need, hence no tax returns were asked for. When she filled out the applications, she omitted the SSN part and wrote "provided upon request" (I guess the organization needs it for tax purposes). Still got the scholarship.</p>
<p>Good points from all. Unfortunately, while I would not have allowed my son to provide detailed financial info or SSN, I realize now that one of these local scholarships wanted his transcript, which contains his SSN. Next time I will black out that info. The ones he did complete ask for the student to check an income range and I felt that since we are above the top level they listed, it was not too specific for us to answer.
I agree that no amount is too small and also view it in terms of books. Older son spends about $300 -400 per quarter.</p>
<p>SSN on the transcript? You should bring this issue with the school ASAP! There is absolutely no need for it being there, a student ID number will suffice. Even our employers do not print SSNs on the pay stubs anymore, just the employee ID number.</p>
<p>Agree with BB about the transcript. No reason to be using the SSN as an identifier.</p>
<p>Our scholarship application used to ask for the SSN. I was able to convince the counseling office that there was no need for that info. We didn't really use the info and by having it on the application, we were responsible for the safety of the information. Everyone is freaked out about identity theft...no one wanted to be responsible for the info.</p>
<p>Our application has salary ranges on it to try to determine need for those scholarships that have a need requirement. I don't think there are many scholarships that require tax forms, but if they did, I would certainly black out any SSNs on there.</p>
<p>But when push comes to shove, it is all about trust. You could dummy up a 1040 and supporting paperwork pretty easily.</p>
<p>My daughter got a scholarship in the thousands of dollars, and I don't recall our getting a 1099. It seems that you would only need to report income on that part of the scholarship was used for room and board. Maybe groups get around having to give 1099s by making the check out to the university and requiring it to be used for tuition and fees only. Maybe that is how they get around having to collect SSNs.</p>
<p>Some of the local scholarships asked for the FAFSA which had a ton of info on it. We gave them what they wanted. Each of my kids got $4k-$5K in scholarships for their freshman year...and some of them also had a need component. If you want the scholarship, you probably need to give them what they ask for.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, my son's entry in various science competitions (national) required his SSN also. I truly do think they should wait on that until money is actually won. But then again, I have sent my tax returns directly or via IDOC to all of the colleges to which he applied. Where do they end up if the kid is rejected? But if you need aid....
As for transcript, we did address this with the school district. And they added an "X" to the end of the SSN and called it a student number. Very dense! But this is the last child so I have given up on many issues and will be happy to be finished.</p>
<p>I just have to say that it's extremely unlikely that the information you provide will be misused. While identity theft happens, it's really not that common. So, a rational person can decide not to worry about it so much and just provide the info.</p>