Over the last several years, we’ve checked out nearly 100 scholarship search sites and apps.
Along the way was born our mortarboard rating system as a quick summation of the site’s overall value in your scholarship search. Taken into consideration in our rating system was information such as transparency of ownership and what the owner seemed to hope to achieve, the quality of the scholarship information shared—whether scholarship “fillers” and contests or solid leads for scholarship seekers, additional valuable information to help students through the scholarship hunting and application process, and use of tactics such as bait and switch or lures to get your information to sell.
Our Top 10 Sites for Scholarship Hunters Are:
LGBT Student Scholarship Database—There isn’t anything fancy here, just lists of quality scholarships aimed at students participating in the LGBTQ community. You can check them out here or read our review here.
CollegeNET/Mach 25—We were impressed with the fact that there is no requirement to share personal information, the ease of use of the Mach 25 search engine, the multiple ways to search for scholarships, the keyword search’s gender-specific returns, and the sheer number of scholarship returns to choose from. Their search engine is here or you can read our review here.
SchoolSoup—This site seems to come through where it counts: helping you find high-quality scholarships. Although the rest of the site leaves a bit to be desired, the scholarship search engine/database is one of the best we’ve seen. You can find it here or read our blog post review.
CollegeScholarships.org—This site is definitely worth your time to explore. It’s attractive and easy to navigate. There are no distracting ads and no requirement to give any personal data (unless you apply for CollegeScholarship.org’s scholarships). There’s lots of valuable information here as well as scholarship links that you won’t see elsewhere. You can read our full review here.
Career One Stop/Career InfoNet—The site has a high trustworthiness quotient, and it has other interesting stuff on it. And most importantly, the scholarship results themselves look really good—no contests, no challenges, no “scholarship” giveaways. If the only problem with a search engine is that you get too many meaty results, then we say bring it on! Visit them here or check out our full review.
College Board/Big Future—This site also gives you lots of information. That and the variety of ways to search, the choice of whether or not to share information, and the ease of use make this a great site to spend some time on. And while you’re there, you can sign up for your SAT! Check our College Board and Big Future or read our full review here.
CollegeData—The CollegeData site is worth your time and effort. The fact that you don’t need to create a profile unless you want to save your search results, the large number of scholarship returns, and the well-targeted search results are all big pluses. There’s a good chance you’ll find something worthwhile here or check out our full review.
FinAid—This site is well worth spending time exploring, although we think that its value as a web portal for college and scholarship information far outweighs its usefulness as a search engine. Visit FinAid or read our review.
Peterson’s—Peterson’s gives you a huge return of scholarships for the relatively painless sign-up process, has some helpful information for the application process, and includes other worthwhile features. We think that overall, the site has enough benefits to make it visit worthy. You can visit them here or check out our complete site review.
Scholarship Mentor—We liked this site. It has its limitations, certainly, and parts of it aren’t current. But most of the links still work or at least take you to the site where you can explore further. Do be sure to check the deadline dates on the sponsor site for the most current information. You won’t get made-to-order results from this site, but the information looks genuine and meaty, and we think Scholarship Mentor is worth the visit. Read our full review here.
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What are YOUR favorite scholarship search sites?
