College is expensive. It can be nerve-wracking thinking about how you are going to pay for school. To help, we have compiled a list of the best scholarship websites to aid your research in securing a scholarship to pay for university.
There are multiple ways to get a scholarship that won’t pile onto your student loans. Scholarships are a great way to get money for school, whether your university rewards you with one or you apply for one through one of the following websites.
Let’s get to it and find a way to make college cheaper for you.
Best Scholarship Websites
As you know, college can be pricey. Looking for a way to help fund your education can be difficult, but many organizations give away scholarship money to students who meet their criteria and are looking for some financial aid.
The best thing about most websites is that they offer a scholarship tutor. If you are sending in an application and you want a professional to look over it or look over an essay you wrote, you have that resource there for you to make the application process easier.
Below is a list of the best websites to search for college scholarships.
Scholarships.com
Scholarships.com is a scholarship database that has over 3.7 million types of scholarships and grants and gives over $19 billion in aid to students. Through this website, you can view different scholarships based on grade point average, race, religion, athletic ability, and so on. This scholarship search engine website makes it easy for college students to search and find scholarships they can qualify for.
Federal Student Aid
The Federal Student Aid website is a government website that provides scholarships and grants to college students. This website assists with financial aid for students by having them fill out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). By applying, you will input your income (if applicable), parents’ income (if applicable), and see what financial aid package you qualify for.
These packages usually include different grants that the government will give you as well as a subsidized and unsubsidized student loan package that you can choose from. You do not have to choose any of the loan packages if you do not want to. You can decline any awards that the FSA awards you.
If you decide to take out a loan from the federal student aid packages, you do not have to start paying them back until six months after graduation.
FastWeb
FastWeb is another scholarship search engine for students. It is completely free to use and easy to sign up to become a member. FastWeb’s scholarships and grants are organized in different categories. It has over 1.5 million scholarships listed for students to view and choose from.
After signing up with your email address, FastWeb will email you different scholarships you may be interested in and give you their description and deadline.
CollegeBoard
The College Board has a scholarship database that allows students to search through millions of scholarship opportunities. To find the best scholarship for you, it allows you to enter information about yourself regarding your academics, ethnicity, gender, and so on to match the best scholarships available for you. If you do not want to do that, you can search through the College Board database and view scholarships that spark your interest.
SallieMae
SallieMae now offers a scholarship search program for students to search for scholarships and apply for ones they qualify for. Along with its scholarship search program, it also offers private student loans with a low APR percent that is perfect for students. It also offers financial advice for students and parents who are worried about financing college.
Bold
Bold has a mission to fight student debt. It is trying to eliminate student debt as it has reached $1.6 trillion. Bold has created an outlet allowing donors to create their own scholarship, grant, or fellowship to help students who they believe will cause real change in the world. It wants to give everyone a chance to pay for school and not be thousands of dollars in debt until they are 40 or older.
Bold is free to use. When you sign up, you will input your background and experiences to your profile to make sure you stand out to donors. Its simple website puts all scholarships in one place so they are easy to find and view.
When you get accepted for a scholarship, Bold automatically handles the process for you. It handles the paperwork with the university you will attend and makes sure your scholarship is applied to your tuition. Bold makes sure the process is stress-free for you.
Chegg
Although Chegg is mostly used for renting college textbooks to students, it does offer a college scholarship search for students. Its database includes over 25,000 scholarships for students to view.
When on the website, you can put in your age, select if you are in high school or college, and provide your grade point average (GPA) to find the best fit for you. Along with that, you can search for certain scholarships as well. Chegg also offers a scholarship tutor as a resource if you need someone to go over scholarships with you or to look over your application before you apply.
ScholarshipMonkey
ScholarshipMonkey makes the college scholarship search as easy as possible. On its website, you can search for scholarships based on your personal data you have filled out on your profile.
Another way is by searching for certain keywords in scholarships. You can try typing in your major and see what pops up. Lastly, you can view scholarships based on different categories. For example, you can click on a category that says “Scholarships for Minorities” or “Nursing Scholarships” and view scholarships that way.
Scholarship Monkey set up its website like this to better streamline the scholarship search process. It makes it easier for students to find what they are looking for.
BrokeScholar
BrokeScholar is another scholarship search engine that is 100 percent free. It does not ask any personal questions in regards to finding personalized scholarships. Although, you may filter scholarships based on race, ethnicity, and gender. You are able to select your grade level and area of study to filter results based on what you are looking for. It doesn’t matter if you are just graduating high school or entering your doctoral program, it has scholarships for all. When applying for scholarships, it offers a due date calendar so you can keep track of deadlines.
As part of its initiative for students to save money during college, it has also partnered with popular brands to provide student discounts and coupon codes. Some of these brands include Nike, Apple, Dominos, Best Buy, Adidas, and many more.
Ready to Start Applying to Scholarships?
A helpful tip to keep in mind is to sign up for many different scholarship websites as they may offer different scholarships not available elsewhere. This increases your chances of being awarded different scholarships.
It is worth applying for as many scholarships as you can. The more scholarships you apply for, the better chances you have of getting more money. Also, if you are an incoming college freshman from high school, make sure your grades are good enough to qualify for merit-based scholarships.
And remember, you have many opportunities to apply for scholarships that your university may offer throughout college. For example, if you are a leader on campus and your GPA is great, you are able to be nominated and apply for different leadership scholarships that your school may offer.
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Even if you get awarded a small scholarship, it still helps. There is $3.4 billion in scholarship money awarded each year, so if you do the work, chances are you can get some of that. The more scholarship money you can secure, the less you have to pay for college.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
