There are programs for foreign scholars and countless websites that offer college scholarships that one can easily get lost in, and most of these sites offer programs for both domestic and international students. Which ones are affordable? Which of the options have functional mobile apps for users? And which grants the most scholarship money? Below are the answers to these questions and The list of 13 best Scholarship Websites for Higher Education.
Why Scholarship Search Engines?
So, why perform these search engines? Well, they can save you a lot of time and energy as organization and planning correlate with saving time. These engines help in a way that, instead of browsing through hundreds of sites, they do the work for you. They provide you with lists of scholarships that are relevant in terms of your profile as well as your eligibility. In a way, it is as if you have a scholarship scout working for you for a scholarship.
So, let me provide you with detailed information about the existing and the most effective free scholarship search engines.
1. Going Merry
Created in 2016, this service arises from the need for an easy way to search for scholarships as it seems like an unachievable mission. Co-founders Charlie Maynard and Ray Murthi had a personal targeting of unreasonable difficult scholarship search websites while doing their masters. At that time, they were faced with lots of dead links and questionable scholarship providers which was both tiresome and frustrating.
The desired purpose of creating a scholarship database was borne out of Charlie and Ray’s desire to make finding and applying for a scholarship as simple and easy as possible. The aim was to establish a web-based tool where more emphasis would be placed on preparing quality applications than for the students to spend more hours browsing through un-updated or inapplicable positions. From this vision, there was the development of Going Merry so that the search for scholarships does not have to be a complicated process.
Advantages of Going Merry
• Scholarship list – You can receive a list of “matched scholarships,” which are Schroders you’re awarded based on the personalized profile provided, ordered by the match score– the GM algorithm of how suited the scholarship is for you.
• Auto-preset forms – students fill out a profile that includes basic data only once, and then the going merry will complete any future application forms based on the profile information.
• Scholarship lists – Going Merry groups the awards in a list of scholarships with similar essays so that you can apply for any scholarship within the list at the same time.
• Local scholarships – Get other scholarships not found on other search engines. Going Merry connects each community foundation, which is more than 700 in the United States, providing local scholarships, and state grants. Also, they list other local scholarships that the over 15,000 high school counsellors who register with them submit.
• App requested time – Obtain a requested time for each application, so that you can at least have an idea of what you are getting yourself into!
• “Favorite” or “Ignore” option – to further refine the list of scholarships that suit you, you can mark some of the scholarships as “Favorite” if you like them and want them to be in the list of scholarships of your preference only, or use the “Ignore” option if you do not like the certain scholarships and do not want to see them in your list of matches.
• Documents to save and request – These are the application documents such as transcripts, Letters of recommendation, SAT scores, essays, and any other documents needed for scholarship purposes The records are saved for one click to be affixed to an application.
• Status checking – Always know the status of your application once you have submitted it.
• Other fair financing aids – Help yourself with the “FAFSA® Made Easier” (this is a simplified version of the governmental aid application form), and “College Cost Insights”, which provides an opportunity to evaluate your financial awards and college costs.
Disadvantages of Going Merry
• Less choice of categories – Instead of going through the menu of categories if you are using Going Merry, you are left with the ‘matched to profile.
2. Fastweb
Fastweb was indeed the first of its kind of scholarship search engine formulated to aid students in accessing different types of scholarships that could assist the candidate to offset his/her college fees. This abbreviation means Financial Aid Search Through the Web and the company is already rather famous. Besides the scholarship search tool, it contains information on financial aid, college selection and other issues concerning education.
Advantages of Festweb
• Alerts – This helps the users to receive further notification of every new scholarship as well as the application deadlines for every scholarship.
• List of scholarships – The results of your matches are displayed in a list format where you can add your favourite list, and a pipeline containing your application records.
• Search by name – you can complete your profile with your major, and athletics interests where after you state your financial need you will be matched with the right scholarship for you.
• You might also like – On every page of the scholarship, you are provided with possible other scholarships that may interest you based on the scholarship being viewed.
• Financial aid assistance —help needed– Preparing the Fafsa, finding financial aid and
• The student loan debts handled by the DoE require adaptive tools for proper comprehension.
• Different kinds of coupons for students To get more discounts, here are some of the best coupons that can be offered to you to make you save more cash for college tuition fees.
Disadvantages of Festweb
• Websites with advertisements – Well, it is difficult to search for scholarships as other advertisements appear on every web page.
• External applications – Links take students to other kinds of applications which takes an additional step and while using any link, a user may fall prey to scams.
3. Peterson’s
Peterson’s: Established in 1966, this company is considered to be the global provider of educational services. There are many different tools for students aside from practice ACT and SAT questions, there are sample tests for the PSAT, SATs, ACTs, and CLEP tests. It also acts as a search engine for scholarships, grants, and awards of any kind.
Advantages of Peterson’s
• Simple filters & preselected lists – Use the scholarships with basic search characteristics and select the lists that are prepared by the desired type of school and major.
• Scholars’ guide for international students – This work focuses on offering students from other parts of the world tips on how to apply to universities in the U.S.
• Save and share features – This saves a particular scholarship for future reference and one can also share with friends and families.
• College list – Maintain a list of the colleges that you would like to get into in order of your preference.
• Tutoring/academization – Receive help when it comes to studying for any form of tests – exams, GRE, SAT, GMAT and more.
• Application materials – Find a comprehensive list of what you need to apply (ex: An Abstract of the Application form, an essay and the Transcript.
Disadvantages of Peterson’s
• Paid test prep subscriptions + shopping cart – This contains paid options that are confusing with the rest of the free scholarship search site.
• Outdated scholarships – Provides some scholarships that are known to be expired or unavailable for application permanently, therefore, a student can only browse through the list to find those that are current ones.
• External links – Essentially, links take students to other related sites where they have to search and apply to a different website which may be a con since it makes users vulnerable to fraud activities.
4. Niche
Niche was launched in 2002 as a company that, in addition to working as a publisher of printed U. S. college guidebooks called College Prowler, The founders formed the company based on a project of an entrepreneurship class. With the onset of its services, College Prowler was soon listed as one of the fifty high-flying companies by Fast Company in the year 2005. Now the website acts as an informative platform with information about colleges, neighborhoods, cities, and companies in the U.S.
Advantages of Niche
• Not registration required – Searching scholarships without account opening
• Specific lists of scholarships – It is possible to get lists of scholarships such as by major or easy scholarships to apply to
• College ranking – Where to find colleges based on specialization through the Niche lists.
• College quiz – Are you unsure what college or university is best for you? Fill out a simple and entertaining survey to get some desired suggestions.
• Career guides – Lean on Niche’s resources, and understand what career and area might be best for you during and after college.
Disadvantages of Niche
• External links- This means the links take students outside the website leading to an extra step and possible propositions of fake accounts.
• Incomplete information – Scholarship descriptions are missing information (ex: is Unknown as indicated by the requirement that stipulates an essay was needed by the unknown writer).
• Fewer options – Searching for scholarships is generally less extensive as compared to the searching process for insurance.
• Extra work – For one, searching without creating a profile entails a faster start though students will have to wade through pages of scholarship programs they would not qualify for.
5. Bold. org
Bold.org: Currently, it is common for students to go for student loans which amount to $30, 000 to fund their college education to completion. Bold. The latter is a problem that org wants to address: provide students with scholarships, grants, and awards to help them pay for college tuition. For student aid, the approach advocated for is more communal hence the name Bold. org enables various types of donors to create and manage scholarships that are posted on the website. In this scholarship site, all scholarships offered are only for Bold. org and its members.
Advantages of Bold.org
• Easy access to the database – There is no need for a person to browse through numerous lists of merit scholarships and other awards and then sign up to gain access to the database.
• Join Now and be rewarded with exclusive scholarships offered to only the members of the Bold. org site
• Guaranteed scholarships – Submit your resolutions and climb the Bold points leaderboard, to win free cash for college.
• No scammers – Since the site does not depend on providers from different parts of the world, the users of this scholarship site do not have issues with scammers.
Disadvantages of Bold.org
• It takes time to sign up for what is needed is a lot of information about the further plans and financial situation of the user
• Points – Students need to accumulate “Bold points” to apply for the scholarships, the students enter more information, link their social accounts, and perform more activities on that site
• Compulsory email notifications – As for creating an account a user has to agree to receive emails which put off certain students.
• Scholarships That You Can Apply For – Some of the following scholarships are incomplete – Bold. org only displays its exclusive scholarships, so the students will fail to see other scholarships that they can apply for
6. Chegg
Chegg is the ultimate student site that opened its doors in 2005. It is a blend of the words ‘chicken and egg’ chosen by its founders since they have faced the problem of not being able to get a job without prior experience and at the same time, not being able to gain the experiences needed for a particular job without having a job in that area. They are books for rent/buy, study materials, internships, and scholarships that the website assists students in locating for college preparation.
Advantages of Chegg
• Multiple choice scholarships – Ability to favourite colleges and scholarships, so the student can decide to revisit those and apply for them later.
• Smart search – Search for schools by type, location, environment, and programs focusing on offered degrees
• A college search engine – 6,000+ colleges and universities in the database
• Costs Saving Product: Textbook shop where you can buy your textbooks at a cheaper price since they are sold altogether.
• Tutor, review – Help prepare for tests with Chegg’s set of flashcards and other study resources for school
• Career help – Look for internships and get them from experienced people.
Disadvantages of Chegg
• External applications- The links allow students to go further than the website meaning that there is an additional step and users may be taken through the wrong links which are usually scams.
• The idea focuses a lot on colleges and textbooks: Scholarships, for some reason, feel like an adjunct.
• Costly and adulterated No, they do not offer a separate app, particularly for the scholarship search but have other apps Chegg for study and prep work.
7. Cappex
Cappex company was established in the year 2006 as a guidance, help, resource and information directory for college-bound students. The term Cappex is derived from the words College Application Exchange. The company and its website have assisted more than 11 million students in finding, funding, and enrolling in college. They can apply to over 135 colleges using the Cappex Application and find external/independent scholarships on the website.
Advantages of Cappex
• College recommendations – input your GPA and location preference among other details the site will recommend the colleges following that.
• Find colleges – Colleges may also engage students going by their profile and the type of school they are interested in.
• College counsellors can follow the progress of the student and the college/scholarship search process
• CollegeConnect – Have all your details filled in your college applications if your profile matches the college.
• Favorite colleges list – Make a list of your favourite colleges, scholarships and majors.
Disadvantages of Cappex
• External applications to the links, are taken outside the website so the process is lengthy and dangerous in a way that it may expose the user scams.
• Priority of the given site is on college admission – This site is even more focused on assisting students to get to college and get accepted for the same than to assist with supplementing for the funding.
• Lack of a mobile app – Using Cappex does not offer an option for any scholarship search on a mobile device other than through a small version of the website from a desktop.
8. The College Board’s BigFuture
Big Future is a not-for-profit corporation of the College Board which embraces more than six thousand colleges, schools and other educational institutions. Having been established in 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board, today it supervises exams ranging from K-12 and some colleges (including AP, SAT, and ACT). The College Board website is useful in scholastic planning to search for scholarships and colleges as well.
Advantages of College Board BigFuture
• All-in-one-account: Produce test data (AP test data, SAT, ACT), and scholarship data.
• College planning area – here you can find and compare colleges that interest you; and also, learn about majors and careers.
• Student Search Service – Have colleges come to you through this service that allows schools and scholarship programs to find students who meet their requirements.
Disadvantages of College Board BigFuture:
• External applications – links lead students to other areas and as a result, an additional step is introduced to the process (it has the potential to involve users to scammers)
• Lack of a mobile application – All users of College Board BigFuture will not have an opportunity to open all the materials of the site and perform all the manipulations on it through the application for a mobile device or even on the simplified mobile version of the site, but only on the computer or laptop.
9. Scholarships.com
A prominent example of a scholarship database is scholarships. com was founded in 1998 primarily to assist students in finding money for college and also to learn more about the process of financial aid. It reveals the scholarship information for high school, college or graduate students, no matter the age.
Advantages of Scholarships. com
• Forum – This means that it is a proper place for the students to ask questions and give answers to other students.
• A treasure trove for resource-seeking patrons – Looks for sources of interest to patrons regardless of their age or the level of their study; high schoolers, college students, even graduate students.
• Newly added sections (has a “News” section to organize scholarships according to the current time of the year, for instance, scholarships for Asian American students during the AAPI Heritage Month. )
• Student resources –here, prospective students can get advice on the kind of essays that are expected from them or the application checklist.
• College counsellors and teachers – They assist students in the application process and follow how the students interact with the site.
Disadvantages of Scholarships. com:
• Accessibility – The layout is hard-coded and does not have a friendly interface that the students would prefer.
• Advertisements – The advertisements that are placed on the site can be annoying to the scholar when searching for a scholarship.
• External hyperlinking – Links take students out of the website and open an additional layer which could create a risk of introducing its users to scams
10. Scholly
This scholarship search tool is known as Scholly, and you may have seen the company pitch on the popular show Shark Tank, where the businessmen and women invested in the firm to grant the creators their reward for developing Scholly – Daymond John and Lori Greiner. Mr. Christopher Gray the Chief Executive Officer of Scholly got $1. 3 million in scholarships and created Scholly to help students similar to him identify obscure scholarships to pay for their education.
Advantages of Scholly
• Scholly-specific scholarships – Come across awards out there only with the assistance of Scholly and start with veritable brands.
• More filtration – Scholly’s already compiled, highly credible list of scholarship opportunities.
• Sholly Editor – submit your scholarship essays, and other school projects to be edited by an AI writing assistant who will suggest revisions according to grammar, structure, and punctuation among other things.
Disadvantages of Scholly:
• Few open accesses – Though there are some free services that a person may try on the website, he/ she cannot use all the services offered by the website if not a member.
• External linkages – Links take students outside the website, an additional step is involved and it can take users to evil-doers.
11. ScholarshipOwl
ScholarshipOwl was designed to help eliminate as much tedious work as possible when it came to applying for those scholarships. Potentially being paired with scholarships on the platform, all you need to do is sign up and take a short quiz. From there, the site will take you to possible scholarships suitable to your background, interests, aspirations for further education, and future career.
Advantages of ScholarshipOwl
Accessibility – Use for any scholarship with just a click of a button
7-day free trial – The site gives a seven-day free trial to enable users to feel the experience of the site for free before they subscribe.
Thus, both domestic and international students – For those from other countries, they can use the site but it has to be for a study that’ll be conducted in the United States of America.
Disadvantages of ScholarshipOwl
Paid membership – This implies that the site charges for membership which goes for $10-$60 a month.
Limited customization – There isn’t an option on the site that would enable one to write the application for a certain award, in case there is one award you particularly want to apply for.
Pop-ups – Various scholarships are advertised while on the site, and this leads to applying for awards that one has no interest in.
12. Unigo
Launched in the year 2008, Unigo assists students in finding scholarships, colleges, internships, student loans, jobs, and the right college majors. The website provides student-to-college planning services whether it is prior, during or after college.
Advantages of Unigo
Scholarship search on Unigo is almost worry-free and is extremely convenient for users. With the “save” functionality, you can categorize scholarships into different buckets: With the “save” functionality, you can categorize scholarships into different buckets:
• Scholarship “save” functionality – Save scholarships in buckets: indicate their response to each statement by using “I will apply for,” “I will not apply for,” “I haven’t considered”
• You can also include more of ‘About Me’, about the scarce hobbies, your favourite sports teams, organization involvement, and interests in this way you get to come across several scholarships to apply for.
• Internships & job search- Not only scholarships, but you can have Internships and job postings on the Unigo as well.
• College Match – Employ the help of this tool to search the college and the university perfect for you through college profiles and college rankings.
• Scholarships without much effort – At times, people wish and are willing to apply for scholarships but have limited documents that can vouch for them Besides, there is a section for easy scholarships on Unigo
Disadvantages of Unigo
• Comprehensive registration – The process is split into many sub-processes and the website does not seamlessly transition from one page to the next.
• Outside connections – Some links take the students to other platforms to apply, which makes it an additional step, and at the same time, the users may fall for scams.
• Ad banner – Not only it is invasive but also disruptive, as a banner is located at the bottom of pages, briefly interrupting each page.
• Lots of old listings – They still have on their website scholarship listings that probably have been closed for years.
13. CareerOneStop
Administered by the United States Department of Labour, CareerOneStop is a collection of several excellent scholarships, grants, fellowships, and other financial aid for the increased enrollment of more students in colleges. What sets this website apart are its well-developed collections of awards targeting students, who are striving to get a vocational certificate or an associate degree. Also and primarily due to this focus of the given website on jobs, the students will be able to search for materials to help them choose the right occupation.
Advantages of CareerOneStop
• Vocational/associate degree scholarships – If you’re interested in obtaining a higher education degree but not a Bachelor’s degree many scholarships are waiting for you
• Professional development materials – For any student who knows the area of employment, to choose, it is easy to find awards and materials for professional development.
• Major and career exploration – Major and career overview, College for adults, and Self-assessment – find out what major and career could be yours with the site’s special features.
Disadvantages of CareerOneStop:
• Poor user design and usability – This scholarship site may not be easy to navigate and give the most minimum features for the scholarship seekers.
• Few scholarships available – Unlike other similar websites, the CareerOneStop scholarship list is not very extensive.