Blogging for Dollars... (Or maybe wasting my time)

I don't know if I'm a sucker wasting my time, or if taking silly surveys and browsing "student finance" articles (most seem like they're trying to sell you a credit card or an advertisement for a lending company), but I'm participating in yet another activity to earn "scholarship points" to enter "free scholarships." Is this why I'm getting so much loan related spam in my inbox lately?

Scholarship Points looks like it may be a legitimate place, that gives out real scholarships. They have photos and blurbs about winners. The trouble is, it seems really stupid to me to participate in market research simply for scholarships. I'm much more into merit or need based scholarships, but that's just my opinion. I guess everyone could use some help.

You do little activities (like this blog post, reviewing their site, for example) and they'll give you "points." You spend points on the scholarship drawings of your choice. (Um, let's see... do I spend my 125 points entering a $10,000 scholarship or a $1,000 drawing. Hard choice.) Actually, you can divvy up your points, so I do throw about 10 points worth into the smaller drawings, just because less people have entered.

There's nothing difficult about the process, except you have to remember to log in frequently. Winners have to check the winner's page and claim their prize or its given away to someone else. You can get extra points by following them on Twitter, or friending them on Facebook as well.

Sorry for the excess of quotation marks, it just all seems relatively stupid and time wasting to me. However, if I do actually win a scholarship, I take all my skepticism back and will change my tune to: "Do short simple activities, get free money. Hurray!"

For now, I'm still expecting debt... and *hoping* to recieve scholarships through the University.