Searching for Scholarships
Well, if you are a senior, or the parent of a senior, you are probably starting to think about colleges, and how you are going to pay for college. GULP. College is a costly investment, worthwhile, but costly nonetheless. Many students utilize student loans to help offset the cost, but since that money needs to be paid back later, it’s not the most favorable route.
How do you pay for college then?
Yes, let’s get down to resources to pay for college. There are lots of options, including the FAFSA, grants, loans, working, savings, winning the lottery (not a guaranteed source of funding), rich grandparents (also not a guaranteed source of funding), and of course, scholarships!
Scholarship Search Engines & Websites
Personally, I have a love hate relationship with scholarship search engines. They require/request all of this information from you to create a profile (which is mandatory in most cases), and then use that information to sell to other legitimate companies or to spam you with lots of emails that you didn’t want in the first place.
Okay, okay, that makes it sound terrible, but it’s really not that bad. In truth, you do need to create a profile with some personal information, including your email address. They usually use these for notification purposes and many use it to help you filter your scholarship search as well as save scholarships to apply to later. But, some do use it to sell to colleges so that colleges can email or mail you marketing material. Not terrible, but sometimes still annoying if you already know where you want to go.
I’m off my soapbox about search engines now- there is no harm in getting information about other colleges or being able to save your scholarships.
How to pick a good Scholarship Search Engine
There are lots and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of scholarship search engines out there. Most of them are legitimate, but not all. There are a few tips to follow to be sure you are getting a legit and reputable search engine:
Rely on reputable sources for recommendations.
I personally have written this lovely blog with recommendations at the bottom, and others have as well. Use sources you trust to get recommendations.
Immediately leave a site that requests overly personal information or wants you to pay to access it.
Any site that wants bank account information up front, wants sensitive information like your mom’s maiden name, social security numbers, etc. or who wants you to pay should not be trusted. These are indicators of an unreputable site. Please do not use them.
What are some of the Best Scholarship Search Engines
The best scholarship search engines and websites give you access to lots and lots of scholarships and the ability to filter them. This is important as you might be looking for very specific scholarships to apply to (such as one for students from a certain state, going into a certain major, and who fall into a particular ethnic group). Pinpointing scholarships that are specific to you gives you a much better chance of finding scholarships that you can win!
There are a number of reputable scholarship search engines and scholarship websites out there and my list contains about 9 that are reputable. Each has a benefit so may be a better fit for you than another.
Fastweb
Fastweb aggregates awards from both large and small directories. You have to make a profile to search for scholarships, which is similar to other sites. But after the initial sign-up process, you can easily search for scholarships and filter your results based on several data points. Fastweb will also notify you when a new scholarship matching your description is posted and when you have upcoming deadlines.
2. Scholarships.com
Scholarships.com divides scholarships by a variety of unique categories, including GPA, military affiliation, ethnicity, artistic ability, ACT or SAT score and residing state. And when you select one of these categories, you’ll likely see a large list of subcategories, where you can then view all eligible scholarships. This system helps students find niche awards with smaller applicant pools that they’re more likely to win.
3. College Board
You’re probably familiar with the College Board if you’ve taken the SAT, AP tests or other college entry exams. But the College Board can help you after you’ve been accepted into a school—its scholarship search helps you find awards to help you pay for college.
After you create an account, you can filter awards by your interests, field of study, club affiliations or specific situations, like if your parents are divorced. College Board will also automatically match you with eligible scholarships based on the information in your profile. There is also an autofill function, which allows you to reuse information from other scholarship applications, saving you time and helping you apply for more awards.
4. Going Merry
Applying to scholarships can feel repetitive; that’s why Going Merry lets students type in information once and apply for multiple scholarships at the same time. If you’re in a time crunch, look for awards on Going Merry before checking out the other major sites.
The site also prides itself on including local awards, which are less competitive and may be easier to win than big national scholarships.
5. ScholarshipOwl
ScholarshipOwl is a popular scholarship website that compiles awards and organizes them by amount, types of requirements, number of winners and length of time until the application is due.
ScholarshipOwl will automatically resubmit your application to recurring scholarships that don’t require anything beyond your basic information. This leaves you more time to focus on awards that require essays and recommendation letters.
6. Bold.org
While many scholarship sites are difficult to navigate, Bold.org has one of the cleanest interfaces. It’s easy to search and find different scholarships you may be eligible for and you can filter by your education level, award category, award amount and deadline. You can even toggle on the “no-essay” button to find scholarships that don’t require a written essay.
7. Cappex
Cappex claims to be the biggest online scholarship database, so it could pay to check the site for possible leads. Like other sites, you have to create an account to see all the scholarships you might qualify for. Their filter system lets you sort awards by year in school, scholarship amount, gender, ethnicity and award deadline. You can also search for renewable scholarships, which offer college funding for multiple years.
8. Scholly
When you fill out a profile on Scholly, their algorithm will comb through available scholarships and create a list of eligible awards. Each scholarship will have a Scholly score, which ranks how good of a fit it is for your background and experience. The higher the Scholly score, the stronger match you are with the scholarship’s requirements.
9. CareerOneStop
The U.S. Department of Labor has its own scholarship website through the CareerOneStop portal. There are more than 8,000 scholarships listed, and you can filter awards by keyword or sort them by amount, deadline, residing state and state where you’ll be studying.
There are scholarships available for students enrolled in a vocational school or working toward an associate’s degree, as well as for undergraduate and graduate students.
I hope you’ve found this helpful (and find some time to color in your future). If you are looking for more information, please visit my website- Higher & Hire. If I can be of assistance to you, please reach out to me here.
Many Thanks!
Valerie Palmer - Career and College Admissions Expert
