Searching For Scholarships!
- Michele Coleman
- Mar 24
- 2 min read
One of the questions that I’m asked the most is “How do I find scholarships?”
Before discussing how to search for scholarships, it’s important to know 2 things:
Where most of the free money for college comes from, and
The way that college funding works.
The most important thing to know is that most free money that is awarded to students comes from colleges themselves. Applying to colleges where your student falls in the upper 25th percentile of students accepted last year, will produce more merit or free money. It’s also important to know that only 7% of students receive money from private scholarships.
Money for college can come from several sources: The colleges themselves, the government, family, private organizations, and private funding companies such as banks.
Money for college can be free (does not need to be paid back), such as scholarships and grants, or loans that require repayment with interest. Loans are never free.
Grants are most often awarded by the Federal Government and are income-based.
Scholarships awarded by a college or a private organization, are either Need-Based, the amount is determined by income and the completion of the FAFSA and/or the CSS Profile, or Merit-Based. Merit-Based scholarships are not income driven and are based on a student’s talents, gpa, curriculum, leadership, etc.
Most scholarship monies are awarded by colleges and are based on a student’s credentials that are found on their college application. Sometimes colleges will also offer scholarships on their financial aid pages and those scholarships typically require an additional application.
A student can also apply to private organizations and foundations to receive outside, meaning not affiliated with a college, money. These are the “scholarships” that most families are referring to when they ask me how to find scholarships.
Private scholarships, always require an application and may require an essay, letters of recommendation, documentation of income, and often transcripts. A family should never pay to apply for a private scholarship.
Finding these additional or private scholarships is not hard, but it is tedious. There are many search sites for private scholarships. Here are a few scholarship sites (there are many and I don’t endorse and am not compensated for sharing these links):
Niche
College Scholarships.org - non-profit’s free search, no login, no ads, spam-free search, also by state
Petersons
They all require a student or parent to complete a detailed profile, which then produces a list of scholarships. At that point, you must click on each scholarship to see if it is active, if the deadline is still open, and if a student is eligible.
Searching for private scholarships is tedious and time consuming, but if you are persistent, it can pay off!
Click here if you’d like to learn more!
Happy Searching!
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