How reliable are all the fastweb scholarships?

Question regarding Fastweb.com (scholarships)?

• I heard that fastweb.com is a good website to help find scholarships and is reliable, but why is it that they need your social security number, your mothers maiden name, your income, and whether or not you have a checking or savings account? Do they really need this to help you find scholarships? If you have an account did you enter this info? Should I still register?

• Answer:

  If you're wondering why you need to register to use Fastweb.com, then you're "on to" the business model that allows Fastweb to offer a free scholarship search engine - they sell advertising. It's your choice, really - fastweb provides a useful service, but the "cost" of using that service is your willingness to receive targeted advertising that will be sent to you (regularly) from fastweb sponsors. Other services might charge you a fee for this kind of information, but fastweb provides it for free - it's just another (very popular) online business model. Fastweb is a legitimate scholarship search and information site, but if you want to take advantage of their services, you'll need to provide all of the information necessary for them to sign you up for some slick advertising. It may be that you'll find the advertising useful, as well, because the sponsors are companies that offer services that are attractive to college students. I hope that helps - good luck to you!