This morning I got an email from a past student who is a high school senior asking if I knew of any scholarships she could apply for. With college and all the costs involved, many students are needing scholarships but don’t always know where to look.
I have graduated 3 children and helped them all find scholarships – many of which they did win. As they were busy with schoolwork and extra-curricula activities I took on the task of finding scholarships they had a chance of winning. Once I found them – they did all the work for the actual application.
I will be honest, it is a long slow process and there is unfortunately no one place to go to find scholarships for college. So, here is a list of where I found scholarships and where you can too.
1. The Colleges they will attend
Most colleges offer numerous scholarships to the students they accept. Some are offered automatically. These are usually the ones that depend on ACT and SAT scores. But others need to be specifically applied for. Look particularly for ones offered by departments in the university – for example, my one son won a Computer Science scholarship at NYU.
2. Scholly App
The Scholly app provides quite a few scholarships I did not find anywhere else. It is well worth the small fee and once you purchase and sign up you also get access to their website if you prefer to navigate through the options that way. And, of course having it on your phone means you can search while waiting in lines etc.
3. The Ultimate Scholarship Book
The Ultimate Scholarship Book is a big book! A huge book! For those who like books instead of working online, this is the one you want! I used to take my copy wherever I went and when I was sitting in the car waiting on kids, or had a few moments before something was about to start, I would work on a page or two. I underlined the ones to look into and then when I was back on a computer I looked them up to see if they were a good fit for my child. Not all the pages apply, of course, but there will be many sections that will.
4. Unigo
I have found Unigo to be the best online search engine for thoroughness. This is just a personal opinion but I suggest you start here by filling out all your child’s information.
5. MoolahSpot
When I don’t have a lot of time and want to take a quick look for scholarships, this is my go-to site. MoolahSpot is quick and easy to use as it doesn’t require pages and pages of info to be entered as most of the other online sites do.
6. The University Network
The University Network is a very nicely laid out website that is easy to navigate. You can choose to find scholarships applicable to your state of residency, for a specific grade level, for a specific GPA, and even based on how they have scored the scholarship according to their own ranking system.
7. Raise Me
I found Raise Me recently and am very excited about using it for my last child. Many colleges have partnered with them to offer scholarships based on what your child achieves in high school – everything from good grades to playing sport and doing community service!
8. Google
If your child has specific hobbies, sports, etc you can google “scholarship” + the term and you will be surprised what comes up. I just tried that for both ‘bowling’ and ‘First Robotics” and both had a nice list!
9. Other online scholarship search engines
There are many other online scholarship search sites. None of them has every scholarship listed but as one only has 24 hours in the day it just isn’t possible to use every one of them. I have provided my favorites above, but here are some more you can search if you have the time: Peterson’s, Fastweb, Cappex, Collegeboard, Scholarships.com.
Of course, finding scholarships is just the beginning! I highly recommend How to Win College Scholarships by Monica Matthews. It is a quick easy read but packed full of useful tips.
Meryl van der Merwe
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