Anyone heard of US scholarships?

Hoof_Hearted

A friend (a bit gullible) has a daughter who is reasonably talented at athletics. The company below, First Point USA, is an agency which organises scholarships for talented students in the US. They charge an upfront fee for finding scholarships at US universities (£2,000 ish). Anybody had any experience of this? Is is a potental scam?

http://firstpointusa.com/

mountainofdebt

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

A friend (a bit gullible) has a daughter who is reasonably talented at athletics. The company below, First Point USA, is an agency which organises scholarships for talented students in the US. They charge an upfront fee for finding scholarships at US universities (£2,000 ish). Anybody had any experience of this? Is is a potental scam?

http://firstpointusa.com/

well as my OH would say - do bears !!!! in the woods?

If the girl is THAT talented - and by talented does she compete for county etc - then I would be looking closer to home for sponsership.

What would she be doing at Uni anyway?

thegirlintheattic

You can get sports scholarships straight from the unis I wouldn't pay anything to a company for it. If she is that talented a letter to the admissions officer should produce some interest. Also in the US, athletics isn't a 'popular' scholarship to be offered.

skater_kat

avoid.

fulbright commission is what you need

Caroline_a

It depends on what you call 'quite talented'. My daughter who has been at national level in athletics for a number of years was scouted several times by various universities. The last one really wanted her, offered her full scholarship, including kit, accommodation, course fees, medical and even flights back to the UK for major competitions. She chose not to take it for several reasons - most US universities compete very early in the season and the norm is several times a week. She would be expected to compete at every one of these - far too much for her event! (There is much evidence of British athletes going to the US and never doing well again) Additionally she wasn't altogether comfortable with the courses offered, and decided to go to our top UK sports uni. (No prizes for guessing which one! )

However, to go back to the 'how talented' initial question, I would say that unless she is in the top 5 or so nationally and has been for a few years, then probably best to not waste any effort on it.

If you want to know any other details PM me.