Scholarships provide free money for college. To win a scholarship, you must demonstrate some skills, such as chasing around objects on a field, creating a prom costume out of duct tape, or getting great grades. But, you must find some scholarships before you can win a scholarship.
Incidentally, there really is a duct tape scholarship. The winning costume is worth $10,000 for college. Visit stuckatprom.com to see pictures of previous winners, who demonstrate incredible talent.
Tools for finding college scholarships
Start your scholarship search at a free online scholarship matching service. After you answer many questions about your background, they match you with a large database of scholarships, showing you only the scholarships for which you are eligible. It is then up to you to apply for these scholarships and maybe win.
These are some of the best and most popular free scholarship search sites:
- Scholarships360
- Fastweb
- Big Future (College Board)
- Peterson’s (Nelnet)
- Scholarships.com
- Sallie Mae
- CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor)
- BrokeScholar
Making the most of a scholarship search site
Answer the optional questions to maximize the number of matches. On average, students who answer the optional questions tend to match twice as many scholarships as students who answer just the required questions.
The optional questions aim to match the student with specific scholarships. For example, there’s a question about students who have been affected by cancer because there are a few dozen scholarships for students who have or had cancer or whose parents have or had cancer. There are even a few scholarships for students whose sibling has or had cancer. The only way to match students who have been affected by cancer with these scholarships is to ask the appropriate questions.
There are many optional questions. Most students will be able to answer several of them. Each optional question corresponds to several additional scholarship matches. So, take the time to answer them.
Did you know that scholarships are taxable? Use our Scholarship Tax Calculator to figure out the taxable amount of your scholarships and calculate how much you’ll have to pay in taxes. Amounts used to pay for tuition and textbooks may be tax-free, but amounts used to pay for living expenses are taxable.
Google Scholarships Scholarships Scholarships
You can also use Google, everybody’s favorite web search engine, to find scholarships. Just combine a keyword with the word “scholarships” to find matching scholarships. Add the word “scholarships” to the search query a second time for a different set of matches.
For example, to search for science scholarships, you might search for each of these query terms:
- science scholarships
- science scholarships scholarships
- science scholarships scholarships scholarships
Using more specific terminology will help identify scholarships that represent a more specific match. For example, in addition to searching for “science scholarships”, search for “chemistry scholarships” and “biochemistry scholarships”.
Of course, most of the free scholarship matching services have already done this. It is one of the many tools they use to find new scholarships.
Search for scholarships offline too
Just because today’s students live online doesn’t mean the offline world can’t help students find scholarships.
Parents and grandparents can ask their employer’s human resources office for help finding scholarships. Many companies offer scholarships for their employees and their children. Some even provide scholarships for the grandchildren of employees. Parents who belong to a union can also ask about union scholarships.
Check with local community foundations. Other sources of scholarships include religious organizations, fraternal organizations, civic groups and national professional membership organizations.
Ask local businesses if they offer scholarships. If they say no, ask why not. Giving out scholarships is a good way to give back to the community and increase foot traffic.
Also ask yearbook publishers and companies that make class rings.
Find scholarship listing books in the local public library or bookstore, near the jobs and careers section. Such books are good for random exploration. But, check the copyright date before relying on a book. If it is more than a year old, it is too old to be useful. Also look for information about local scholarships on bulletin boards located nearby, as well as outside the school counselor’s office. Scholarships can also sometimes be found in the coupon section of the local Sunday newspaper.
Beware of scholarship scams
Scholarships are about giving money, not getting money. If a scholarship search site or a scholarship application charges a fee, no matter how innocuous, avoid it. If you have to pay money to get money, it’s probably a scam.
The scam might call it an application fee, guarantee fee, deposit, taxes or something else that sounds plausible. But, you should never invest more than a postage stamp to get information about scholarships or to apply for scholarships.
Also be careful about requests for unusual personal information. Never answer questions that ask for your Social Security Number, bank account number or credit card number. Scholarship providers are not required to issue 1099s or other tax forms to scholarship recipients.
