Ten years ago, the only avenue to research scholarships was to peruse through thick scholarship books. Online scholarship search engines have replaced the books, allowing students to be exposed to hundreds of thousands of available scholarships. Some examples include scholarships for being a redhead, a twin, or for even being of Italian descent. Getting a personalized scholarship list is made simple by these search engines.
FastWeb
FastWeb is the foremost leader in scholarship search engines. The site hosts over one million scholarships and three billion dollars in awards. Students simply create a free account and then answer a series of questions. These questions assist the search engine to narrow the number of potential scholarships available. The questionnaire takes around 30 minutes to complete; however, students can save their answers and return to the site at a later date.
Similar to online college search engines, FastWeb considers the student’s information and quickly produces a list of potential scholarships. Students can read through the description for each scholarship, access the scholarship’s official website, and have a personalized calendar for the deadlines of matching scholarships.
CollegeNET Mach 25
Based on the same principle as FastWeb, the Mach 25 is a quicker search engine. The user does not need to set up an account; however, the site offers the option of completing one. This program has seven simple categories that the users fill out. Based on the information entered by the user, the program will search its database of over 600,000 scholarships for matches. Although not as extensive as FastWeb’s database, Mach 25 is another great resource to search for awards.
School-Based Programs
Virtually every high school in the United States has funding to purchase online college and career programs. The two most popular programs are Naviance and Career and Information System (CIS). Both programs are internet based, and users need a username and password to access the program.
Within each of the programs is a scholarship search component. Similar to the other scholarship search engines, these programs have the user complete several questions to narrow the number of scholarships to a potential list. Another feature of these two programs is that the user can look for a specific scholarship within the database. To access these programs contact a local high school’s counseling department for the codes.
Tuition costs increase every year. Scholarships can assist in reducing the costs for students. Although not necessary an automatic process, scholarships can easily be researched by utilizing online scholarship search engines. The process usually takes under 30 minutes to get a potential list; however, additional work may be required by the student. Several scholarships require essays, personal statements, evidence of work, and/or references all of which will require a time commitment on the student’s part. For the most part, families can use free scholarship searches as an aid to reduce tuition costs.
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