 Several companies have begun trying to attract visitors to their sites by giving away money. Some of them make give-aways with a scholarship theme. These scholarships are called lotteries or scholarship sweepstakes. The sites of these companies use the lure of free scholarships to attract traffic to their sites.
Most of such sites choose winners using a casual drawing, using largely unlimited selection criteria. Your chances to win a free scholarship in these lotteries are low, as the sites expect the lure of free scholarships to attract millions of visitors.
The chance of your winning a free scholarship from these lotteries is usually less than 1 in 10,000. (If the scholarship lottery isn't well-publicized, the chances may drop to as low as 1 in 500.) With more traditional scholarship programs, which select winners based on academic, artistic, or athletic talent, your chances to win are closer to 1 in 15 (assuming, of course, that you qualify for the award).
Current Scholarship Lotteries
The only current scholarship lotteries still in operation are those provided by education lenders, where scholarship sweepstakes are more likely to be a viable promotion. The education lenders offer smaller amounts, typically $1,000 each, they award up to 100 scholarships each year.
Caveats
So long as the sites do not ask you a fee to enter, there doesn't seem to be much harm in it.
Please note that many of these sites will either sell your email address or use your email address for marketing aims. It is one of the ways they pay for the awards. You should be careful and avoid any commercial use of your email address, unless you want to receive junk email. You may also want to use a available free email account instead of your real email address.
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