March 18, 2010
Searching for Scholarships
By Chris Brown
Director of Financial Assistance
The search for outside scholarships can be very frustrating at times, and many families complain they cannot find scholarship opportunities. To make it more difficult, an application may require candidates to fulfill multiple criteria to even qualify for the award. If a student meets only three of the four criteria, then they will not be eligible to apply.
Don’t let this discourage you from pursuing outside scholarship opportunities. This is where the Alma College Financial Aid Staff can help.
Here are some suggestions to get you started:
Every student should create a profile on a reputable scholarship search engine that searches a database of scholarships, fellowships, grants and loans. One of the largest databases of scholarship information is www.fastweb.com. This Website allows a user to create a private mail box and search for awards based on user demographics and award qualifiers. The search takes less than 15 minutes, and the list of scholarships is updated daily. FastWEB works for students in all disciplines, from freshmen to post-doctoral candidates.
The College Board’s fund finder scholarship database, also known as ExPAN, lists scholarships and other types of financial aid programs from national, state, public and private sources. The database, updated annually, is derived from The Scholarship Handbook published by the College Board: http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp
The collegetoolkit.com offers up-to-date information on thousands of scholarships. In addition, it works with foundations, associations and other organizations to make application forms more accessible and to deliver these forms to you via the Internet. www.collegetoolkit.com
Finally, if you are required to pay money to get money, it might be a scam. Every year there are a few scams based on imitations of legitimate foundations, scholarship sponsors, lenders, and scholarship search companies. Also, steer clear from Websites that ask you for several key personal identifiers including name, address, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and dates of birth.
An important thing to note is that Alma College accepts 100 percent of outside scholarships without reducing institutional dollars. Instead, we reduce the student’s self-help portion of the student’s financial aid (the amount you pay, the amount you borrow, or the amount you work through the work-study programs).
Feel free to contact us at (989) 463-7347 or finaiad@alma.edu if you need any assistance or tips in conducting a search for outside scholarships.
