Hello Everyone,
I’m seeking advice for scholarships. The few on my college website are few and far between and very specific for applicants (like year, major, and extracurriculars). I’m searching for other avenues to win scholarships online but I need some help locating good websites that are legit. I have an excellent GPA and I can write essays or anything as necessary. Does anyone have any tips?
Averie
Hi Averie,
Great job thinking of this already! Averie, I found there are typically two ways to approach this. 1) you contract each college to speak with counselors/administrators and find out what scholarship they have and how to apply. 2) you use an online website to apply to mass number scholarships (fastweb.com, chegg.com). Still have to typically do reference, write up about yourself, but it helps you look nationwide.
There are pros and cons to both. Sometimes showing up at a college to talk about this, you can speak with counselors that give you great information and help you apply. However, this takes time and effort. To combat this, there are a lot of websites that are trying to gather as many of these scholarships as possible so you can apply to a significant number.
I found it is often a good strategy to do both. Due to time constraints, focus on the school you want to go most in trying to use their scholarships, build connections, and learn more about this school. Then do mass scholarship applications online via the above-mentioned websites.
Here is a great article from U.S. New that break out websites that help you apply for scholarships: https://www.usnews.com/educati…r-scholarship-search
Best,
James
Thank you for your reply James!
There were some great sites on that attachment you put in your reply. I
will be checking them out later today. Hopefully I can find some that work
out!
Thanks again,
Averie
On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 9:36 AM The Penny Hoarder Community <
community@thepennyhoarder.com> wrote:
Hi There!
Congratulations on your goals and great GPA.
Trying to find scholarships is not an easy task, but certainly doable, as not all schools share such valuable information.
You might want to check Fastweb.com. I used that site for my son and me (when I went back to college) and although it has a lot of ads – bypass them, e.g., say no unless you are interested. Once you finish entering your information and answering the questionnaire, you will be provided a list of scholarships you may qualify for. Some will ask you to write an essay or a video, nothing out of the ordinary and the scholarships are legit. Additionally, some may have income cap–but do not despair, go through the list, certainly worth the effort to get informed and try out.
So, do it!
I truly wish you success in all of your endeavors and go get them!
All the best,
Annette V.
Averie Messenger posted:
Hello Everyone,
I’m seeking advice for scholarships. The few on my college website are few and far between and very specific for applicants (like year, major, and extracurriculars). I’m searching for other avenues to win scholarships online but I need some help locating good websites that are legit. I have an excellent GPA and I can write essays or anything as necessary. Does anyone have any tips?
Averi
Averie Messenger posted:
Hello Everyone,
I’m seeking advice for scholarships. The few on my college website are few and far between and very specific for applicants (like year, major, and extracurriculars). I’m searching for other avenues to win scholarships online but I need some help locating good websites that are legit. I have an excellent GPA and I can write essays or anything as necessary. Does anyone have any tips?
Averie
Hey Averie! I work in admissions at a University and am excited to see you’re thinking of this early. Here are a few places I recommend for the students I speak with:
fastweb.com - SET UP A NEW EMAIL ACCOUNT FOR THIS ONE! You’ll create a really in depth profile (I’m talking hair color to height, hobbies, parents’ jobs and your own career goals) and it will give you scholarships to apply for. I’ve seen everything from duct tape from dresses to writing an essay on the relationship between Russia and Israel. Just be patient - we’ve had kids apply for 200 and only get 10 but those 10 can pay for school!
Try to avoid google. As a general rule, if a scholarship asks for an application fee it’s not legit.
If you work or volunteer anywhere, check with them! If you have an idea of what you want to study already, look for volunteer opportunities in that area because they might be willing to help you with a scholarship. For example, if you want to study medicine see if you can volunteer at a local hospital. I had a young lady who wanted to be a surgeon that got something like $10k from the hospital she volunteered at.
Have your parents check to see if their companies offer scholarship opportunities. Not all do, but it’s worth a shot!
If you’re part of a church or various clubs, check with them. Depending on the size and budgets there might be opportunities there as well.
On an off note, be sure when you get your award letter from your university that you know what is guaranteed and what is not. A lot of schools will give you an award letter showing a $0 balance but they might be adding in scholarship, base federal aid along with Pell grants and Parent PLUS loans…which you may or may not be eligible for. Also be sure to find out if any of the scholarships from the university are renewable. A lot of schools only give them to freshmen and then you have to figure it out after that.
Good luck!
If you have any special skills, you might want to look organizations or groups that support those special skills. Over the years I have viewed scholarships for people who are left-handed…being home schooled…etc.
I talked to my profs for my degree; they tended to know more ins and outs or major specific scholarships than my financial advisor did. I also talked to librarians, not just at my college but my main library. Weirdly enough, they knew a lot of other legitimate resources I could look into or could show me a section where I might find what I was looking for. Our main library apparently had an ENTIRE section of books with just website and foundation listings that offered scholarships I’d never even heard of. Best of luck!!!
