Most college-bound students know about the FAFSA, or know that colleges (both public and private) offer a variety of merit and need-based scholarships and financial aid. But what happens when the money your school and the government offer aren’t enough? That’s where outside scholarships enter the picture. Today, everyone from Bill Gates to Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering college scholarships. Today’s scholarships aren’t just for geniuses and students en-route to the Ivy League, they’re for everyone.
The internet is one of the best sources of available scholarships, and with a little research almost everyone can find free money for college. One important thing to remember with searching for your “free money,” online is that it should be just that – free! Don’t use websites that require a fee, or ‘guarantee’ that you will receive a scholarship in exchange for paying a site-user fee. There’s tons of free scholarship websites available, there is no reason to use one that makes you pay!! So here goes, my top fiveof scholarship search websites.

1.) www.fastweb.com -- In my opinion this website is the holy grail of scholarship search websites. The website is easily navigable and has hundreds of scholarships in its database. You fill out a survey (including things like location, involvement in various organizations, intended major, career etc.) and they come up with a list of scholarships you may be eligible for. Additionally, FastWeb has helpful advice columns, and offers help in finding jobs and internships.

2.) www.studentScholarshipsearch.com – Again, this website is easy to use, and includes a wide variety of scholarships (their current claim is to have nearly 900 scholarships and over $9 billion accessible through the site). One benefit of “student scholarship search” is that it requires no sign-up, you simply use their search engine to find what you want, when you want it.

3.) www.collegeboard.com – In addition to registering for the SATs and searching for colleges, the College Board website now offers more information about Financial Aid and its own scholarship search program. This is a great option for people who are looking for one-stop shopping for their college search.

4.) www.brokescholar.com – Broke Scholar has many similarities to FastWeb. It is easily usable and very extensive, and similar to FastWeb it requires a free registration and uses your responses to a variety of questions to create a personalized list of suggested scholarships. The amount of time it takes to fill out the survey is definitely worth it. There are millions of scholarships available, let the website do the hard part of searching through the masses, provide you with a tailored list, and save your energy for working on the applications.

5.) www.college-scholarships.com – this website is a bit different than the others, and I was initially a bit turned off by its busy appearance. With a little examination however I realized that the website has a lot to offer, especially its “Free Scholarship Searches” page. Instead of offering their own search service this website provides tips and links to nearly 50 other scholarship search websites. The website also has a variety of interest-specific lists such as lists of women’s colleges, historically black colleges (HBCs), and Christian colleges.

Last but not least, we can’t forget good old Google. Google might not be a scholarship search website, but it should definitely have a role in your search for scholarships. There is a reason google has become a verb, and that should certainly prove true in your scholarship search. You can simply google “scholarship,” or “scholarship search” but if you make your search more specific you will probably yield more useful results. For example, search “scholarships for twins” and you will yield several results. There are also scholarships for out of state tennis players at a Florida state college, cancer survivors, left-handed people and tall people. As well as scholarships available for individuals from certain ethnic, religious and geographic groups.

Moral of the story? There are scholarships available for everything and everyone. You don’t have to be a genius, but a willingness to put in some time searching out the right scholarships and filling out the applications as a much. Put in the work, and the rewards should follow!