<p>Last May, I was chosen to receive a $300 scholarship from my local VFW. They gave me a letter telling me that I needed to send in proof of enrollment in classes and they would send me a check. </p>
<p>So, in August I enrolled in classes and promptly sent them proof of enrollment. A few weeks passed and I still hadn't gotten my check, so I called the VFW (several times) to ask why they hadn't sent my check. The guy on the phone wasn't helpful so I went in person a few weeks later. The guy at the office took my contact information and said he'd have the head of the scholarship committee contact me. I left another copy of my proof of enrollment with the guy I talked to. It's now been two weeks and I still don't have my check. I really don't know what to do next. Anyone have advice?</p>
<p>The scholarship is from my local VFW and they have had the program for several years. 10 students from my HS are chosen each year and afaik, nobody has ever had this much trouble getting their check. So it's not like this a scam scholarship from a sketchy website. </p>
<p>It is strange that they promise to send you a check directly. In my experience scholarships are sent to the school and applied directly to your tuition, but I guess it makes sense if the scholarship is meant to be used for books or living expenses or something like that. </p>
<p>Is there any way you can escalate? If the person on the phone and at the office are not helpful, is there a scholarship program coordinator you can reach out to instead? If they are working through your high school in some way, maybe the guidance counselor at your school might be able to reach out to them on your behalf?</p>
<p>There is a scholarship coordinator, but I don’t have his contact information (the person in the office just said he’d pass along my contact info), so I don’t think that’ll help me much. Talking to my HS counselor is a good idea though - I’ll definitely call her on Tuesday. Thanks for the suggestion! </p>
<p>My daughter received 2 small scholarships from her HS. Both were sent to her. One was made out both to the U and her so she had to sign it and give it to the school. The other was just made out to her. It’s not unusual for small local scholarships.</p>
<p>This is a volunteer organization. It is likely that the treasurer writes checks once a month, or at least with a frequency less than every day. It may be that the scholarship coordinator was slow getting the info to the treasurer, one or both was sick or had other issues that prevented issuing the check. I suggest you give them a few more weeks. </p>
<p>Most of my scholarships were sent to my school (or at the very least, sent to me and made out to the school), but the two local ones I’ve received were sent to me and made out to me. So as annoyingdad said, it’s not unheard of to have the check sent directly to the recipient. </p>
<p>I understand that it is a small volunteer organization and people don’t work everyday, but I did send in everything they asked for 8-9 weeks ago which should be more than enough time. But I will give them another week or two before I call/go talk in person again. Hopefully you are right and they are just slow at getting around to it! </p>
<p>Hmm, I do think that two months is long enough to do a disbursement like this especially since it is something that they have done regularly for many years. I definitely recommend reaching out to the scholarship coorinator since this person is the one who is most likely to be concerned with working on this matter directly. As @mamon pointed out the people who answered the phone likely don’t have any direct knowledge or oversight over the scholarship – it’s likely not even a priority for them relative to the work that they are doing. </p>
<p>The scholarship coordinator of course cares more about it and is more likely to have both the authority and the interest in moving things along for you. If it had only been a few days or even a month or so I would say just don’t worry about it, but if it’s been over two months and no one even realizes that your scholarship is still a WIP then I would reach out to the coordinator and just to let her know. I wouldn’t be pushy or annoyed with them of course but it might be helpful since it’s possible that there might have been a miscommunication or a mistake that is explaining why your check is being delayed when everyone else’s has already been paid.</p>
<p>VFW posts probably meet once a month. The members who run the club are volunteers with a lot of them being elderly. They need a quorum to dispense checks. Be nice and polite or the check might not appear for a while. Snail Mail a thank you note and print out your current address. Let them know how appreciative you are of their help and then sneak in if they plan on paying you directly or if the funds will go directly to the school so that you can provide an address.</p>