Scholarship Experts Site Review

Scholarship ExpertsScholarshipExperts

http://www.scholarshipexperts.com

Like other scholarship search engines, this site requires you to provide personal information in order to match you with scholarships. It took about 30 minutes to complete the registration process and we had 132 scholarships match our Profile. The list of scholarships is easy to read and shows the scholarship status, deadline, name with hyperlink to scholarship details, category, and online application link. Their scholarship E-Organizer has some nice features that allow you to add scholarships to a Favorites List, discard scholarships, and print scholarships.

Begin by clicking on the GET STARTED button or use the SCHOLARSHIP SEARCH tab at the top of the page. You’ll be directed to start building your Student Profile in six steps. The first involves entering your contact information and setting up a password. Next you’ll enter “Student’s Information” including your date of birth, gender, citizenship, current student standing, and high school graduation year. When asked if you’d like to receive scholarship notices and information from affiliates and third-party marketing partners, we suggest you select “No, exclude me” then click the CONTINUE button.

Step 2 of 6 asks about your citizenship and state residency. Select the correct answers and click the ADD button. Then you’re asked for your mailing address, which they state, is to help “pre-fill application request letters for scholarship providers.” Our experience is that this option is not needed because once you have the sponsoring organization’s website address, you can easily locate their application and either download it or complete it online. Rarely will you need to contact an organization to request their application. However, this information is required in order to complete your Student Profile. Next, you’ll be asked about your intended career and major. You can select up to 50 or “I don’t know.” If you really don’t know, we suggest using any career terms and majors that you might be interested in. If you already know what career and major you’re interested in pursuing, enter those details, as it will return more scholarship results. You can also hit the SKIP button, return to these fields, and rerun your scholarship search later when you’ve narrowed your choices down or wish to explore new fields. Underneath the Major question, you’ll see an ad. Select “No, thanks” and click the CONTINUE button.

Step 3 asks what city and county you reside in (and it’s based on the previous answers you gave). You can also choose to SKIP these two questions. Some scholarships are for students residing in a specific town or county. If you skip these questions, you will not be matched with scholarships with those eligibility requirements. Next, you’re asked about the state your high school is in and which high school you attended. Again, you can SKIP these questions. Then you’re asked about which state you plan to attend college and which college you plan on attending. This information is used to match you with scholarships for a specific school or state. Now you’re asked to select which award results you wish to have presented (Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors, or Graduate students). Narrowing this selection to only the years you qualify for will reduce the number of scholarships, but it will save you time when it comes to reviewing your matches. Some scholarships are only for Freshman while others are only for Juniors. Why waste time reviewing scholarships for which you don’t qualify? Next indicate what your planned enrollment status will be (full-time, part-time, etc.) and click the CONTINUE button.

Step 4 asks you to complete information about your hobbies/activities, sports, clubs/organizations, associations/societies, GPA, SAT, ACT, and class rank. Some of the questions include information about your parents’ activities. Many organizations sponsor scholarships related to these activities and associations. We recommend you scroll through all the choices and fill this information out completely as it will return more matching scholarships for you to review. Click the CONTINUE button.

Step 5 focuses on the military experience of you and your family members. It also asks for information about programs/events, Greek organizations (fraternities and sororities), and unions that you and your family members belong. The last section asks about your awards and honors. Again, we suggest you fill this page out with as much detail as you can in order to increase the number of qualifying scholarships matches. Click CONTINUE.

Step 6 asks about your parental status, your work experience, your family work experience, personal information, disabilities, household income, race, ethnicity, and religion. Again, we suggest you take the time to scroll through the multiple choices and select all that apply to you. Remember, you can go back to your Profile and add or remove selections and re-run your scholarship search. Click CONTINUE.

You thought the profile process was time consuming…now comes the research part. Scroll through the scholarship list and click on a link that looks promising. This brings you to the “Scholarship Details” page where you can quickly see the award amount, sponsoring organization, number of awards, deadline, requirements, contact information, and a link to the sponsoring organization. You can click on this link (or the APPLY ONLINE NOW button) and go directly to the sponsor’s website and begin the application process.

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