Private, Outside Scholarship Searches

While you can most often access the best funding by strategically utilizing your Federal & State Grant options and College-Specific Grants & Scholarship opportunities, outside scholarships may help defray some of the other costs of college. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you get started:

• Set up a separate email account that you use to sign up for outside scholarship search engines. This way, the scholarship matching emails won't disrupt your main inbox and you can stay better organized!
• When using your Scholarship Application Organizer, make note of any scholarships you find that you could apply to next year, even if the deadline has passed. Most scholarship deadline dates remain pretty similar from year to year, so this could save you time searching for scholarships as a college student!
• Estimate the amount of time it will take you to complete a scholarship and set aside some time each week to devote to those scholarship applications — the ones who acquire the most scholarship dollars are the ones who approach applying to scholarships as a process!
• If you meet most of the criteria but not all, email the scholarship organization to ask if you can still apply. Especially if it's the PERFECT scholarship for you, but there's just one eligibility piece that you don't meet, the worst they can say is no!

Online scholarship search engines are a great way to personalize your scholarship search with little effort. After you create your account, just be sure to go back in and update your profile with as much detail as possible — the more detailed your profile is, the better the search engine will be at recommending scholarships for you. Use the descriptions below to decide which one sounds like the best fit for you!

• College Greenlight — This is the one we recommend starting with. It's a newer scholarship matching service that was created specifically to connect first generation and underrepresented students to generous scholarships. It's free to create an account and it will even show you how much effort/time completing each scholarship is estimated to take so you can effectively budget your time.
• College Board Scholarship Search — College Board is a great option if you want to do a quick search for scholarships associated with a certain major or career. You don't have to make an account to use it, although it's recommended. College Board is full of resources that offer much more than a considerable list of scholarships, including a more Scholarship Search Information.
• Fastweb — Fastweb is another website where you can create an account for free so it can show you only the scholarships you qualify for. You can also manage the scholarships you want to apply for. They will frequently email you about the scholarships it identifies for you and it doesn't share your information with any third parties, so it's an efficient way to narrow your scholarship search.

If you aren't satisfied with the options above, here are a few of the other reputable scholarship matching websites available. Just keep in mind that once you create an account on one or two scholarship matching websites, it's recommended that you stick with them, because at some point, the scholarships that get recommended to you will start to overlap.

• Niche — Niche is one of the easiest sites to navigate. It’s neatly organized into categories that make it simple to start finding and applying for scholarships, including, but not limited to, sports, interest area, career and major. The one downside is that it can be tricky to filter outside of these preset groupings, but with no required sign-up and a user-friendly design, Niche is a simple and powerful resource.
• Unigo — Unigo has plenty to offer beyond just scholarships, including jobs, internships, college profiles and rankings, articles and a textbook store. When it comes to scholarships, the site offers both profile-based matching as well as easy-to-browse categories. It's interface is also very user-friendly which makes finding scholarships simple.
• Chegg — Chegg's interface is simple and the mandatory sign-up process is well worth the time. What’s more, it has a “top scholarship picks this week” category, which highlights opportunities you may have otherwise missed. And on top of the scholarships, Chegg offers homework help, tutoring, test prep, internships and cheap textbook options for when you're in college!

If you're looking for a more hands-on approach to searching for scholarships, these websites have a large collection of scholarships that are neatly organized into categories that you can search through without creating an account.

• JLV College Counseling Site — HIGHLY recommended... It includes a great collection of scholarships broken down into different categories for easy searching. All scholarship lists are organized by deadline to help you prioritize!
• Major & Subject-Specific Scholarships — Use this site to narrow your search for scholarship programs to find ones that best suits your status as a student, your educational background and your ultimate career goal.
• Student-Specific Scholarships — Use this site to narrow your search for scholarship programs designed to reward different extracurricular activities, personal hobbies and interests, unique talents and distinctive cultural heritage.

If you do not have U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, see below for some larger lists of scholarships that you may be eligible for:

• Immigrants Rising Undergraduate Scholarships — Contains scholarships for undergraduate studies that don’t require proof of citizenship or legal permanent residency.
• MALDEF Scholarship Guide — MALDEF is a civil rights organization that supports the next generation of civil rights advocates for the Latino community.
• ScholarshipsAZ.org also has some great resources you can look into...
  • Including this Complete ScholarshipsAZ List.
• DREAMer's Roadmap Scholarship List and the Free Mobile App that helps undocumented students find scholarships to go to college.
• The Davis-Putter Scholarship for student activists will open in the Spring!
• Scholarships for International Students

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The spring is all about local scholarships. They may be smaller in award but you might be more competitive for these scholarships since there are fewer students applying. Another positive: usually the application is much shorter than the larger awards. So, quantity is much more important now! Apply, apply, apply!

Here some recommended steps to find local scholarships:

1. Ask your high school guidance counselor for a list of local scholarships — It's unbelievable, but some local scholarships do not post their application online; they simply drop off information at your school. Your school's counseling office should be your first stop to find local scholarships.
2. Look at your high school's website...and the websites of other schools in your district — If your counselor is busy, then take a moment to look at your school's website. You may be surprised that there is a list that no one has ever told you about! (Pro tip: even if that list is from last year, most scholarships repeat so just do a quick Google search.) If that is still not producing results, think of a school in your area that is maybe larger than your school or a "college prep" school if your school is not. Sometimes, they may have a better list on their website or at least a different list than your school filled with local scholarships.
3. Check with organizations around you — Many times, organizations that you have connections with offer small scholarships for which you might be eligible! Check with religious institutions you attend, volunteer organizations you're involved with, and jobs where family members work to see if they have scholarships.

As you're searching for scholarships, make sure you know what NOT to apply for! The College Board has some great tips on How to Spot Scholarship Scams.

Also check out this link with more information about How to Avoid and Protect Yourself from Scholarship Scams.