FastWeb Site Review

fastwebFastWeb

http://www.fastweb.com

FastWeb is a well-known scholarship search service where you can create a personalized Profile and locate scholarships that match your Profile. It is a division of the job search company Monster.com, so be prepared to be presented with numerous “job opportunity” ads.

The tabs along the top of the page contain links to a variety of important topics including “Colleges,” “Financial Aid,” and “Career Planning” (which includes internship opportunities). The “Sweeps and Promos” tab is new and, at a quick glance, is unimpressive. If you’re looking for scholarships, stick with the “Scholarships” tab at the top. Clicking on this tab, presents you with a drop-down menu containing more choices. “Featured Scholarships” is a short list of scholarships that rotate depending upon the deadline and have a simple APPLY NOW button. However, they contain NO eligibility requirements and you will have to continue clicking through various pages and signing up for accounts to finally discover if you’re eligible to apply. In our opinion, this requires an investment of time for which there is little payoff. “Scholarship Tips” and “Scholarship Videos” are two other menu choices you might wish to explore.

“Scholarship Matches” is the actual search engine. You will need to set up an account in order to use this service. The first page requires personal and academic information, and all questions must be answered in order to move on to the next page. At the bottom of the first page is a box that you can check if you wish to receive unsolicited third-party offers (some might call this spam). Make sure it is unchecked if you don’t wish to receive these offers. Then click the CONTINUE button. The next page that comes up is an advertisement. Unless you’re interested, click on the NO THANKS button. The next page asks you to provide more details including your birth date. You will also be asked about your college(s) of interest, career objective, academic and test scores, ethnic origin, and citizenship. Below that are…more advertisements. Leave the advertising sign-ups blank and click the CONTINUE button.

Again, you must completely fill out this form in order to move on to the next page (which, surprise, is yet another advertisement!). Scroll down to the bottom and click the NO THANKS button again. This brings you to the next page where you set up your user name and password. Again, avoid the advertising below the sign-up and click on the CONTINUE button. (Be sure to write down your user name and password so you can go back and continue researching.) Once again, you will be presented with an advertisement. Click the NO THANKS button. Finally! You get a list of scholarships based on the information you entered. Click on the scholarship link and you will quickly see the award amount, deadline, eligibility requirements, and a link to the sponsoring organization’s website.

Another way to find scholarships using FastWeb is to scroll down to the bottom of the “Scholarships” page and select from: “Scholarships by Year of Study,” “Scholarships for High School Seniors,” “Scholarships for College Freshman,” “Scholarships for Veterans,” “Scholarships for Bilingual Students,” “Hispanic Scholarships,” or “African-American Scholarships.” Selecting any of these links will take you to a new page that lists the “Largest Scholarships” (by award amount) and “New Scholarships” (those most recently listed). The right-hand column contains more scholarship directories based on military service, ethnicity, honors, race, unique situation, and school year/standing. This is an excellent search engine with a myriad of scholarships and is well worth investing your time to thoroughly explore this site.

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