CollegeRank.net is an advertising-supported site. Leave it to Sallie Mae, one of the nation’s leading student loan lenders and servicers, to design a user-friendly and uncluttered scholarship search service. Sallie Mae has scholarship opportunities for college students, high school students, minorities, and scholarships for single mothers. I expected the results to be really targeted and comprehensive, especially with the expansive profile questions. However, this is not automated, users must actually click checkboxes to utilize the “tracking” process. Scholarship providers are asked to email SE; then a representative contacts the provider. Click on the folder icon to the left of the scholarship listing and it’s automatically copied to your saved tab. You can choose to include applicable loans, research grants, and internships, in with the scholarship search. Use Sallie Mae's free scholarship search, provided by the College Answer website. The first page of scholarship results was populated with University of Colorado-Boulder programs. Doing this exercise daily, or sometimes multiple times per day, Berman was able to apply for over 100 scholarships. Getting educated on the entire process of applying for and getting approved of financial aid is also possible when browsing FinAid.com, providing all of the free resources necessary for you to ensure you are following all of the right steps and procedures to get the financial aid for the education you desire. This is the college Toni is interested in, so the results rated high for relevancy. CHECK SALLIEMAE.COM FOR THE MOST UP-TO-DATE PRODUCT INFORMATION. LEGITIMATE GRANTS FOR COLLEGE. The service is designed to target each user’s particular interests, college and career goals, and job hopes. Grants for college can be need-based or merit-based. Using ScholarshipMonkey.com is free and only requires a few minutes to register to become a member. Learning more about various potential scholarship scams as well as the tax liabilities you may face with different scholarships available today is also possible with the use of FinAid.com. NEW: Scholarship search engine: fast, free, no registration required. The rating column displays a number of stars that indicate the scholarship relevancy. Sallie Mae is a top financial services company which specializes in education. The more detailed you are able to make your profile; the more targeted your scholarship results. Their unique categories help students with distinct circumstances find qualifying scholarships to apply for. At the end of your profile setup, make sure you uncheck the last box for email promotions. This is just an example of how you could begin to go about drilling down into Google for pertinent and relevant scholarship information outside the subscriber search services. ... Other free searches are available at Scholarships.com, Fastweb, Sallie Mae … However, College Board claims that it collects its information through an annual financial aid survey distributed to “over 1,200 sponsoring organizations.” This we’ll-come-to-you method may also make a difference in the types and numbers of scholarships available. Find graduate school scholarships FastWeb also features the ability to browse through scholarships based on amount, deadline and the various types of available and what they require you to submit to enter or qualify for the scholarship yourself. Read a regularly updated online student newsletter that features topical articles for prospective college students. The site itself claims to have helped and assisted more than 50 students altogether with finding scholarships and applying for them. The site makes a big deal of the relevancy of their scholarship search engine algorithm. Description: Sallie Mae has a reputation as one of the nation’s largest private student loan providers. The only one that even attempts to measure the value of the scholarship matches is Scholarships.com. The profile did not allow for specific college choices and instead the criteria was constrained: high school senior looking for merit and need-based aid as a college freshman, an intended major in biology, a resident of Colorado, and female. It’s easy to use: just register (for free), fill out a brief profile, and start searching. This is a valuable metric for measuring the success of this service. When you click on My Scholarships tab your targeted list of scholarship links appears. Scholarships.com provides a college search and a Resources page, similar to FW—dozens of relevant articles for prospective college students. Search in Google for, Scholarships for women are abundant. The “deadline calendar” tool places your saved scholarships onto a deadline timeline so you know when they are due. Some of the better information may be the Resources tabs on FastWeb and Scholarships.com—useful and relevant informational articles targeted to wannabe college students. Batch print scholarship programs you choose. Scholarships.com rates the relevancy of each scholarship, a distinguishable and useful metric, but FastWeb for all its bells and whistles leaves me poking through each and every scholarship. However, this is really a marketing tool on their end, a perk they extend to advertising partners that could actually turn out to be more of an inconvenience to you, the user. #12 – Sallie Mae. If you recall, Toni’s profile included some personal data that should make her eligible for some state and national scholarships: at least one parent was in law enforcement and she is an honor roll student. The profile interface is brief. Outside the ability to sort, make a comment and save to my favorites, the list is pretty general. Aptly named Broke Scholar, is one of the newer free scholarship services. The site features organizational tools: A nice feature of this database is the Match Accuracy. The site creators claim SE is the “most accurate scholarship search service on the internet.” Users complete the online profile so that scholarships can be “matched” to the appropriate personal data. “Dear Steve, Around 6-7 years ago, I cosigned a Sallie Mae loan for my roomate in the amount of $15K and a second one for around $3K. Toni’s personalized scholarship search returned 273 results, pretty comprehensive, but the relevancy was low. Another advantage of this search service is the inclusion of state awards among private and educational programs. Check to make sure the organization is reputable and legitimate and never give out any banking information for any scholarship. CB is also the primary site for SAT and ACT resources, sample tests, and test dates and locations. Generally, the scholarship results seemed pretty precise considering the slim details I provided. I also have Multiple Sclerosis. Beyond actual scholarship results, the better information among the services may be the article repositories on FastWeb, Scholarships.com, and Broke Scholar, as well as the Newsletter feature on Sallie Mae’s site—useful and relevant informational articles targeted to prospective college students and parents. The higher your match accuracy the fewer scholarships you’re shown. There is no such magical list. It’s not sorted and organized in quite the same way, not filtered, but some of the results returned by the services were not uniquely filtered. At any time you may go to your “edit profile” tab and make modifications. Save scholarships you’re interested in to your Favorites tab by clicking in the checkbox and choosing Save to Favorites. The site was created in 1995 and is a subsidiary of job search giant, Monster. While completing the profile I realized quite a few questions pertained to military personnel/veterans and to students that may be involved in or affiliated with specific professional organizations. Scholarship searches are a challenge. The site claims it’s a means by which colleges may contact you or you can be sent scholarship reminders. Sort ascending and descending columnar data for deadline, award amount, “user rating,” and “match accuracy.”. Peterson’s scholarship search is only available when users input profile information. There are as many similarities as there are disparities between these four services. Zinch has one of the most updated and visually-intuitive platforms for students to begin searching for and comparing different types of scholarships available today. The average annual scholarship amount per family was approximately $8,000. ... Sallie Mae Scholarship Search. Dollars for Doers is another program sponsored by the organization, in which Sallie Mae’s workers can work volunteer hours in order to qualify for a $250 grant to use for attending college. An internet search of legitimate college scholarships on government websites may motivate you to explore funding resources. There is a lot more here than you’d think and acquainting yourself with the site features is encouraged. Sallie Mae and Scholarships.com have a free scholarship search. The biggest drawback is that the user profile is not saved; you must go through this process every time you wish to try their scholarship search product. Chances are you’ll have some very relevant and useable results, but you must analyze the material. Wish to add a reminder note to a listing? Additionally, users who register to become members of SallieMae online to begin searching for and comparing different scholarships are also automatically entered into a monthly drawing to win more than $1,000. I even included Toni’s interest in music, but that’s not precise enough—a scholarship for a student organist made it onto the list. I can also sort results by deadline or by award dollar amount, same as FastWeb. The company has been delivering the most up-to-date information for educators, parents, and students since the late 60s. My college of choice is the University of Colorado-Boulder, intended major is biology, and career interest is medical research. Once you become a member of ScholarshipMonkey.com, your information may be shared with other companies and educational institutions that are currently offering scholarships of their own. Scholarship Search is the free way to get access to more than 6 million college scholarships worth up to $30 billion. For instance, it only takes a couple minutes to enter the Sallie Mae Scholarship Sweepstakes. In 2006, I broke off communication with him as he moved back to the UK due to not getting a job in the US. Regardless of volume, I was frustrated. In 2006, Nelnet—a leading student loan lender—acquired Peterson’s. FindTuition.com invites users to complete an online profile, similar to FastWeb and Scholarships.com. Print selected scholarships with a click of a link. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. EUR students with U.S. citizenship may apply for the Smart Option Student Loan and the Sallie Mae Parent Loan. Someone has to actually submit award information before it’s included in the site’s features. You can also learn more about military aid and benefits with the use of FinAid.com. But the results are delivered in alphabetical order and are not flexible for sorted or filtered searches. There was a drop down menu for medical conditions, but multiple sclerosis was not among them, which would have directly applied to Toni’s profile. Student loan lender, MyRichUncle, owns SRN Express. The Best Scholarships in Virginia, Animation Colleges College University Differences As free subscriber sites they offer their services to users that take the time to fill in the brief online profiles. You do not need to repay a scholarship. Once you join to become a member of the SallieMae website, you will immediately gain access to the actual scholarship searching tool as well as the college-planning calculator tool and letter analyzer for any type of letters you plan to send off to colleges and universities you are interested in attending. I have a part-time job at McDonald’s, at least one of my parents is a police officer, our household income is $60,000, and I’m a resident of Colorado. This needs to be at the top of the list. I know already that the state scholarship results are a match because they are all for Colorado, Toni’s home state. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site. You’ll be prompted for all the general information, as well as specific names of colleges in which you’re interested, intended major, field of interest, athletic interests, and general hobbies and interests. Scholarship services promise big results, but might not live up to their reputation. Still, no doubt, helpful. Once you’ve created a user profile and logged in you have immediate access to some handy tools that provide you some organizational dexterity. This may be more time consuming than the search services, but you may feel as though you have more control over the data, the way it’s searched and what’s returned as results. Flowers & Co. signed an agreement to purchase Sallie Mae for approximately $25 billion. Here are a few places you can visit for more information. And do they deliver results any different from those you’d find using Google search? The site itself claims to have helped more than 1 million students altogether to find scholarships and opportunities to help them with affording and attending the college of their choice. I finally figured out that if I scrolled to the bottom of each little drop down that I would find the “Not Applicable” option. The Best Scholarships in Texas Scholarships in South Carolina Also read “Success Stories,” update your profile, and save select scholarship programs to your Favorites. Grants for college – Find free money for college | Sallie Mae. Once you register to become a member of Zinch and you have verified your email address, you can then begin to browse for scholarships that are most relevant to you based on your current status as a student as well as whether you are interested in a traditional college scholarship or if you are seeking a vocational scholarship or even a scholarship to help you to attend the grad school of your choice. Using Scholarships.com is simple and free and only requires a few minutes to get started. The service claims 650,000 scholarship awards in its database, among them programs for undergrads, grads, and professionals. Using Zinch is free and easy, as the service has provided more than 5000 different scholarships worth more than $1 billion altogether. Saint Xavier University does its best to make your university experience affordable. With that being said, Sallie Mae is a legitimate company. Google is a very good search engine, but it works off of specific combinations of keywords. Also the profile process is confusing. Any legitimate scholarship sponsor will want to hear from the student, and that often means filling out paperwork and writing a letter or essay. Savings. Information advertised valid as of 12/28/2020. Save and sorting features available with most other search services allow a level of flexibility just not present here. Users cannot even bookmark results pages on SRN Express. College Board is the preeminent source for almost everyone involved in the college application process, from students to educators. For Toni’s profile the default match scale was set at 60%, which returned 128 scholarships. FinAid.com is one of the most well-known online resources for finding out more information regarding scholarships and financial aid you are qualified to receive based on your income, age as well as your previous education schooling you have completed. One standout, primarily for its prominence among scholarships, was the Coca Cola Scholars Scholarship. You’ll also have to decide if you want to be a part of FW’s mailing list. This doesn’t mean that they offer same results. SallieMae is no longer only known for providing various loans for houses and students, but it has also become a resource directory for seeking out new scholarships that are potentially appealing to you and relevant to any career or position you want to fill yourself once you graduate. Users can adjust match accuracy on a scale from low to high. Fastweb, a subsidiary of Monster, hosts more than 1.5 million scholarships that amount to more than $3.4 billion dollars. Scholarships.com was launched in 1998 and competes with FastWeb for top placement in search engine results. Up in the right hand corner of your web page, right next to the logout link, you’ll find a link to the FAQ page. Are you a graduate student or considering graduate school? Only a few even attempt to measure the value of the scholarship matches with some type of relevancy rating or percentage of accuracy. Outside and Other Scholarships. Using a simple Google search, I could have hooked more targeted scholarships with similar keywords, as you’ll see. The information is pretty basic—name, email address, country of origin, birth date, gender, and your current year of school. The information is nearly identical to that in the annually updated Peterson’s Scholarships, Grants, & Prizes guidebooks. Missing is the stable of informational articles that both FastWeb and Scholarships.com provided. Scholarship Websites All in all, some generally good funds showed up, albeit very competitive ones. Search queries may be more sophisticated from one to the next, but they still fall far short of the agility of a real search engine. Although there is not currently a live search to find various scholarships that you are qualified for or that you may be interested in pursuing yourself, it is possible to seek out additional information regarding the authenticity of scholarships being offered and how to determine whether an opportunity is credible and legitimate before applying and submitting your own personal information. SE has a couple proprietary features: SE found only 58 scholarships that matched Toni’s profile, but were they more relevant than others? After you have searched for the scholarships that are relevant to you and your own educational qualifications and GPA, you can then review deadlines as well as submission requirements before applying fro any of the scholarships that are available to choose from yourself. College Data’s scholarship tool runs on Peterson’s scholarship database. Scholarships.com was originally founded in 1999, and now boats more than 2.7 million scholarships with a total value of more than $19 billion in value since its launch within its record database. Compare this to 110 for FastWeb. If any applicable scholarships belong to a college you’ve entered into your profile or are offered by colleges within a state in which you listed a college interest, then any of those programs in FW’s database are listed as well. Zinch also gives users the ability to add their zip code as well as their cumulative GPA in high school to find scholarships that are most fitting and suitable for each individual member who has registered to become a part of the online community. After my dissection of each of the four search services I chose, it’s clear that not any one of them is able to give a complete and concise scholarship list and results lists differ widely. Scholarships that receive the most votes are brought to fruition for the users of CollegeNet.com. They offer creative educational savings tools, tuition payment plans and student loans. If there has been any money saved in a 529 plan, you can use that to pay for online courses. But this seems like a clear example of how incomplete your scholarship searches can actually be. This is really just an online checklist for your benefit. Clearly FindTuition’s results in the college scholarships category were not applicable in the least for my fictional profile. Once you register to become a member of the Scholarships.com website, you can then choose which types of scholarships you are most interested in and that are most relevant to you. However, they do outdo Google in nifty organizational tools: email reminders, post-it note comments, and downloadable applications, batch print capabilities and sorting mechanisms. Peterson’s Award Database is from the company most noted for its Peterson’s college guidebooks. But profiles remain fairly vague regardless of questions pertaining to career interest, study major, and hobbies and interests. SallieMae has shared more than $18 billion worth in scholarships with millions of students since it began providing resources and opportunities to online users and students nationwide. This means that it meets basic standards and has been verified as legitimate. These will be ads and direct mail junk that will only gum up your email and ultimately frustrate you. The “saved scholarships” tab is where you’ll find any awards programs you’ve decided you want to track, explore, or apply. I tried narrowing the scholarship search down with the keyphrase multiple sclerosis, but without results. I almost quit the entire process in midstream. Sallie Mae is one of the largest and most reputable student loan companies offering both undergraduate and graduate student loans. I entered multiple sclerosis and police officer—one or both of her (fictional) parents’ professions. Expect to spend at least 10 to 15 minutes on this; it’s just not that intuitive. Of the 32 scholarship results, almost two-thirds were various state police organizations with scholarships. Her profile only lists University of Colorado-Boulder as her intended college, but FT returned scholarships for colleges located in 5 states, none of which was Colorado. On most days a quick Google search for scholarships returns results with FastWeb at the top of the search heap. But I could have found them on a more inclusive and robust search service that actually offers sorting and saving features. Scholarships are free money to help you pay for college. According to the Sallie Mae study “How America Pays for College” 44 percent of families used scholarships in 2014, and scholarships covered 17 percent of college costs in the academic year 2013-14. Are they accurate? 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