College Board/BigFuture Site Review

Scholarship Site Review: College Board/Big Future The College Board/BigFuture

http://www.collegeboard.com and http://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/

The College Board is an organization that prepares and administers standardized tests used in college admission and advanced placement. If you click on the STUDENTS tab in the middle of the page, you will find a sign-up box for SAT dates as well as information about college planning, finding colleges, exploring majors and careers, getting application advice, and paying for college. The scholarship search engine is tucked away on College Board’s BigFuture pages, and the way to get there is not readily apparent on the home page. Here’s how.

Profile search:

  • Click on the STUDENTS tab in the middle of the home page
  • Click on the “Get help paying for college” link in the center column under College Planning/BigFuture
  • Select “Search for Scholarships” in the left-hand tabs
  • Click on the START SEARCHING button
  • Click on the START button
  • Select your search criteria in the Personal Information, Academic Information, Type of Award, and Affiliations Information pages
  • Click on SEE RESULTS

If you want to save your search parameters, be sure to click the SAVE button at the bottom of each page so that you can repeat your search as needed. You will then be prompted to create a student account by supplying your name, gender, date of birth, high school graduation date, and zip code. If you choose not to save your search parameters, you can forego creating the account, but you won’t be able to save your search results.

In our search, we used no specific personal or affiliation information and got 48 returns.  Note, however, that although we specified gender in the criteria, the search results were not gender specific.

The College Board/BigFuture site also allows you to browse by sponsor name alphabetically by clicking “Browse by sponsor name” in the right-hand column of the Scholarship Search Welcome page. You can also perform a keyword search in the same place.

Keyword Search:

  • Click on the STUDENTS tab in the middle of the home page
  • Click on the “Get help paying for college” link in the center column under College Planning/BigFuture
  • Select “Search for Scholarships” in the left-hand tabs
  • Click on the START SEARCHING button
  • Enter your keyword(s) in the search box under “Search for Scholarships” in the right-hand column of the page
  • Click GO

Our search keyword was “women,” which gave us a return of 53 scholarships, a good way to search for gender-specific results.

The College Board/BigFuture site gives you lots of information, has a variety of ways to search, lets you choose whether or not to share information, and is easy to use. Your time will be well spent exploring this site. And while you’re there, you can sign up for your SATs! If you have a disability and need accommodations, be sure to check out their Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) page.

We give College Board/BigFuture 5 out of 5:

5 Mortar Board Rating

 

 

 

Related Links:

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College Board’s Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD)

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YouTube: Finding School Scholarships Using the College Board Scholarship Search Feature