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Q. Does anyone have experience with The National Alliance for Excellence scholarship? www.excellence.org. The scholarship application has a processing fee of five dollars attached to it. My normal practice is not to encourage students to apply for awards that require application fees. If anyone has experience with this organization, I would appreciate any input you might have.

A. We have had winners in the past; awards are based on how the money is for that major. Sometimes students get $100, sometimes they get only their name mentioned on the website. I actually think that part is humorous – some majors are poorer than others? But, students enjoy the resume-builder.

A. I'm not familiar with it, but from the website it looks like a legitimate nonprofit that solicits money from businesses in order to award small to medium merit-based awards in their name. The "sponsors" get in return some good PR and a tax write-off; winners seem to get opportunities to meet some prominent people in addition to monetary awards. My quick read found no information about number of applicants, how many awards are available, etc., which is a negative.

These awards are probably not available through any other source, so $5 may be an excellent investment for students who fit the profile of previous winners -- the posted newsletters give some hints of what they're looking for. But the fee is puzzling, in view of their corporate sponsors. Perhaps it's meant to discourage casual applicants?