High school students are always looking for college scholarships to apply for, but a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Charles Schwab Foundation looks like it should be required math for anyone wondering how the economy works.

It's kind of like the TV show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-grader?" but with more of a scholarly aspect to it. Students have to be a lot smarter for the fall National Financial Literacy Challenge; they have to get a perfect score in order to win a $1,000 scholarship. Up to 100 students can win.

Here's a sample question: If you deposit $1,000 in a savings account with a fixed annual interest rate of 5%, how much will you have in your account after two years if you make no additional deposits or withdrawals?

A. Exactly $100; B. Exactly $1,100; C. Les than $1,100; D. More than $1,100.

The other sample questions have to deal with net worth, diversified investments, fixed-rate mortgages vs. variable-rate mortgages, and a question about how to get a large mutual fund balance in 20 years, a question I suspect the Schwab co-sponsors had a lot to do with being asked. Still, some unique questions to ask I high school kid. I guarantee you I didn't know about variable-rate mortgages when I was 17; I barely understand them now that I own a house.

The deadline for taking the 35-question online test is Dec. 12. Teachers can sign up their students at the U.S. Treasury's Web site.

Aaron Crowe is an unemployed journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about his job search at www.talesofanunemployeddad.blogspot.com

Anyone applying for college this coming year and not paying attention to scholarships may as well skip the SAT and ACT in favor of counting change at the local Michael's. Seriously, going to college without taking advantage of free money is one of the dumbest decisions you can make. There are plenty of excuses to avoid applying for scholarships: I'm not special enough, my grades aren't great and I don't have any time, but honestly none of these should keep you from applying for at least one scholarship.

Don't be discouraged by lackluster academic performance. Many scholarships focus on a well written essay and your future plans. Some others focus on more outlandish criteria including these 9 weird and unusual scholarships, which are awarded based on your last name, height or your affinity for Duct tape! While most scholarships require a little more effort, they are worth it.

U.S. Senators want to know why college endowment funds are growing at double digit rates, while spending from those endowments amounted to less than 5% per year. A study by the National Association of College and University Business Officers looked at 785 schools. On average, the endowments earned a 17.2% rate of return on investments for the last year. And the value of the schools' endowments grew by 21% in the last year.

Congress wants schools spending more of their endowments to help make college more affordable for students. Yet, on average, the schools in the study spent only 4.6% of their endowment assets. Observers are surprised that the payouts from the endowments didn't at least reach 5% - the amount that private foundations are required to spend each year in order to maintain tax-exempt status. School endowment funds have no such requirement, but many believe that they should voluntarily spend at least 5%.

College personnel say it's not so easy, especially when large chunks of their endowment funds are reserved for specific purposes. I can see how this is an issue, as many donors specify what their funds can be spent for. On the other hand, it seems that it wouldn't be too hard for schools to shuffle funds to both use endowment money for its stated purpose and help make tuition more affordable for students.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.