Searching and applying for scholarships requires lots of hard work and effort. But it’s well worth it in the end. These are in no particular order of my preference.
- Achieve Alabama – This is a search engine that was created by the State of Alabama Department of Education to ensure that the local scholarships are in one place.
- Scholarships.com - The free scholarship search is one of the most established and robust, tracking a reported $19 billion in scholarships.
- Scholly – This is an app that matches students with scholarships based on the criteria that you enter about yourself. Cost is 2.99 a month, one of the more expensive ones, but well worth it in my opinion.
- College Green Light – this is a free scholarship search engine for first generation and underrepresented college bound students.
- GoodCall Scholarship Search Engine – GoodCall integrates data and technology to make finding scholarships easier for students and their families. And, unlike other scholarship search sites, they are totally free and open. You can view thousands of scholarships, filter results by specific requirements, and even search by competition level and entry difficulty.
- College websites – This is the source of the most scholarship money. Each college has their own section for scholarships and it can be found on their website. Search also for departmental scholarships. For example, nursing, music, English etc.
- Your school website – I post scholarship opportunities that I become aware of. There are hundreds posted on the counseling website.
- Local scholarships – I will post many of these when they become available. You should also check the following places: your parents’ employer, banks or credit unions that they have memberships at, your church, and organizations that you or your parents may be involved in the community.
- Fastweb.com – this company is owned by Monster.com, it claims to have more than 1.5 million scholarships in its database. Expect a flood of emails, which is why I suggested creating a separate email address for college.
- Cappex.com - Cappex allows students to search both schools and scholarships, with a database of more than $11 billion in scholarships.