Scholarship Search Engines

Back to the #1 question I get from students:  How do I get scholarships?!  I wrote an earlier post about How to Find and Apply for Scholarships, but this post is specific about how to use Search Engines.  So...here it is.  I'll offer some tips to organize yourself as you get started, and links to several search engines that are reputable and easy to use.

1.  Because you will receive LOADS of emails from the scholarship engines about possible scholarship matches, it might be advantageous to set up a different email for your scholarships.  However, this only works if you check the new email at least once a week.  If you're going to ignore the new email account, you might want to just use your regular account and sign up for one scholarship engine at a time.  

The point:  be honest with yourself about how well you check various email accounts, and make a plan that fits you the best.

2. Fill out your student profile as you set up each account--and be as complete as possible!  This is how you get matched with scholarships, so it's worth your time to give information about your activities, interests, and strengths.

3.  List all possible majors and degrees.  If you are undecided, then check everything that you could possibly pursue.  Want to study Engineering, but think that English is a possibility?  Check both!  Because many scholarships are geared towards students pursuing a specific field of study.

4.  Hopefully, you'll keep these scholarship engine accounts for multiple years--and if so--you should take time to update your information each year.  Hopefully, you'll have had other experiences, joined clubs, completed service projects, and had other life experiences that will match you with other scholarships.  Update!

5.  Finally--here are several scholarship search engines to check out.  

• Scholarships.com
• studentscholarshipsearch.com
• fastweb.com
• Cappex.com
• scholarships360.com
• Collegeboard.org

Good Luck!