Apply for private scholarships.
- Your high school counselor can help you locate and apply for private scholarships.
- Looking locally for scholarships can produce successful search results. Start with your community and civic organizations and businesses. Ask your parents, family and friends what organizations they belong to and if they offer scholarship opportunities. Do your parents’ employers have scholarship competitions? Do you have an older friend who was awarded a scholarship from a local business or organization?
- There are several free scholarship sites on the Internet. Two popular sites are College Board and Fast Web. When searching the scholarship sites, be specific when creating your profile and be prepared to spend a lot of time on it! It is a myth that billions of dollars go unawarded; however, many people have success finding scholarships on the Internet.
- The local library is a great place to find scholarship books. Just make sure the scholarship books you use have current publication dates.
- Read your local newspaper every day. The newspaper will have announcements about scholarships typically as the deadline is approaching. Newspapers will also feature pictures of students receiving scholarships – by seeing what scholarships they are awarded, you will know what is available.
- Many scholarships are not posted until Fall of your senior year, and deadlines start popping up as early as December.
- Click here for a listing of scholarships compiled by ESF.
Most scholarships come directly from colleges.
Complete applications for admission in the fall of your senior year. You must be accepted for admission in order to receive scholarships and financial aid. Request applications for all scholarships and grants (need-based and non-need-based) offered by each college or university you are interested in attending. Most can be found on-line at the college’s Web site. Make sure you meet all the deadlines.
Beware of Scholarship Scams!
How can you tell which scholarship offers are legitimate and which are scams? The signs that follow many not mean an offer is a scam, but if an offer has more than one of these characteristics, it should be treated with caution.
- If you have to pay money to get money, it may be a scam. Never spend more than a postage stamp to get information about scholarship programs.
- Up-front fees required: These scams look like prizes, but require that you pay fees in order to claim your prize. If you win a prize from a contest you don’t remember entering, be suspicious. Some scams look like offers for low interest loans. Education loans never require an up-front fee; instead, they subtract fees you owe from your loan disbursement.
- Guaranteed scholarship search services: Nobody can guarantee a student any financial aid money other than a Federal Stafford Student Loan, for which everyone qualifies. Guarantees typically come with hidden conditions that make it impossible to get your money back when their guarantee turns out to be false.
- Free seminars: Many scholarship services offer a “free” seminar or interview to provide information about financial aid and their services. Though the meeting may be free, its real purpose is to get you to pay for their product. Students and parents can get all the information they need about financial aid, without a sales pitch, from Education Services Foundation, their school counselor or the college Financial Aid office.
- Requests for personal information: Scholarship applications will never request your bank account numbers or credit card numbers and usually will not request your Social Security number. This information can be used to get confidential information about you or to illegally use your credit or bank accounts. Do not release this information.
Other clues to indicate a scam:
- Organization name sounds like a federal agency or uses an official-looking government-type seal.
- Claims to be endorsed or recommended by a university, government, Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. These kinds of organizations do not endorse or recommend private businesses.
- Uses a post office box for its address with no other address information provided, or no phone or contact number is listed. You should always be able to get in touch with a scholarship agency. Call directory information to see if there is a listing for the organization to check out if it is legitimate.
Unsure? Have questions about a scholarship offer?
Get an independent opinion from a trusted source. Show the offer to your school counselor, to the staff at your college’s financial aid office, or to a counselor at ESF College Planning.
