Each year, millions of private scholarships and fellowships are awarded, with a total value of more than $7.5 billion. Below are tips and tools to help you with the process of researching and applying for scholarships.
Scholarship Organizer
Don’t lose track of time or scholarships you are interested in – Download your scholarship organizer by clicking on the button below. Use the form as is or customize to fit your needs. The first line has been filled out as an example.
Letter of Recommendation Request Form
To make the process of receiving a letter of recommendation more efficient, make a copy of the Google doc below, complete the form, and share it with your teacher, counselor, or other recommender. (It is a good idea to share it electronically and to print it out.) Letters of recommendation take time – allow a minimum of ten days to to complete your request.
Find scholarships using search engines
Click on the links below to begin your scholarship search. To avoid looking through long lists of scholarships that don’t apply to you, look for websites that: let you create an account and save your personal information, sort by deadlines, allow you to save/like or remove schools, match you to a significant number of scholarships, and have few sponsored ads.
Bold.org – Find exclusive grants and scholarships matched to you
Cappex – A free website where you can learn which colleges want you, before you apply. Learn about more than $11 billion in merit aid scholarships.
Career One Stop – Search more than 8,000 scholarships, fellowships, grants, and other financial aid award opportunities. Filter level by choosing high school in the search window on the left side.
College Board – Helps students connect with over 1,500 colleges and $300 million in scholarships
College Raptor – Utilizes a planning platform that helps students discover colleges based on academic and cultural fit. Created in the Iowa Creative Corridor!
Fastweb – Create a profile and let fastweb do the research on 1.5 million scholarships, plus internships, colleges, and more
Finaid – View the scholarship groupings at the bottom of the web page to begin your search for relevant college scholarships
Goodwall App – Goodwall is a next-generation community for students to connect and discover opportunities from scholarships to jobs. Free
Niche – Organized into categories making it one of the easiest sites to navigate
Peerlift – Proven scholarships, internships, summer programs, and more gathered by fellow students like you
Peterson’s – Search for scholarships by school type, ethnicity, gender, field of study, state of residence, award type, and more
Raise Me – Helps students find colleges and earn micro-scholarships as early as 9th grade.
SallieMae – Search based on your field of study, hobbies and other parameters
Scholarship America – Provides information and resources for your scholarship search
Scholarships.com – A free college scholarship search and financial aid information
Unigo – Offers scholarships using profile-based matching, as well as, internships, college profiles and rankings, articles and a textbook store
Verified Scholarships – Each listed scholarship has been certified as a real scholarship. The directory is organized by major or interest.
Safety Tips
Remember, a legitimate (worth your time) scholarship will:
- Require an essay or at least short-answer responses
- Require additional support such as transcripts, SAT/ACT scores, and recommendation letters
- Have minimum GPA requirements, although there are exceptions
- Are awarded once or twice per year
Scam (one to avoid) scholarships may:
- Charge a fee
- Use the term ‘sweepstakes’, ‘drawing’, or random selection’, often weekly or monthly. (They want your personal information. You will be bombarded with emails!)
- Have zero requirements aside from entering your basic information
- Ask for personal or financial data such as your Social Security number, driver’s license number, banking information, or credit card number