College Scholarships

The Columbus Foundation help students pursue educational dreams and prepare for their future careers. Donors have created hundreds of scholarship opportunities for students across Central Ohio.

Learn about the scholarship application, selection, and payment process and discover hundreds to apply for in The Columbus Foundation’s online scholarship directory.

https://columbusfoundation.org/students/scholarships

Don’t wait until the last minute. Planning ahead is the single most important part of the process, and it makes everything else go more smoothly.

Don’t let others do your work. Your scholarship application needs to be an authentic portrait of you.

Don’t spend money to make money. A legitimate scholarship program will never charge you a fee to apply. If an application asks for money, walk away.

Don’t give out bank or credit card information. Any financial data you provide should come from IRS or FAFSA data. Legitimate providers do not ask for bank information.

Don’t believe you are guaranteed a scholarship. Even if you think you’re a shoo-in for a scholarship, take the time to fill out and submit your application properly and fully.

Don’t avoid a scholarship just because you have to write an essay. Scholarship essays can be stressful, especially if you think you’re not a great writer. But don’t be scared — scholarship providers want to know your story, and this is your chance to tell it.

Don’t reuse essays without updating. If you write one great essay, it’s tempting to use it over and over. This is okay — just make sure you update it for each application.

Don’t count out small scholarships. A $250 or $500 award may not seem like much, but these smaller awards can add up quickly. (And many have short applications — spending a half-hour to win $500 is quite a payoff!)

Don’t get discouraged. There are $50 billion in scholarships given out each year. No matter what makes you stand out, there’s an award for you!

These websites offer free databases to help students apply for thousands of available scholarships.

Going Merry (https://www.goingmerry.com/)
A popular site recommended by independent college admissions counselors is Going Merry, which aims to simplify scholarship applications for students. Signing up is free, but students can also check to see how much they’re eligible for in scholarships without signing up. According to the website, students have won upward of $40,000.

Scholarships.com (https://www.scholarships.com/)
This website helps students discover scholarships they qualify for, organize their matches and apply for those scholarships.

Scholly (https://www.myscholly.com/about/)
You may have heard about the Scholly app through the television show “Shark Tank,” where founder Christopher Gray shared how he earned $1.3 million in scholarships thanks partly to applying to virtually every scholarship he qualified for. He found that for many of the scholarships he won, he was one of a few applicants or the only applicant. Financial management company SoFi estimates $100 million in scholarship money goes unclaimed each year, and Gray says he created Scholly to help students find that money.

Fastweb (https://www.fastweb.com/)
Fastweb is another free scholarship search provider that claims to have a database of 1.5 million college scholarships worth over $3.4 billion. Owned by Monster.com, Fastweb also offers college planning resources and financial aid information.

BigFuture (https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/scholarship-directory)
A platform created by the College Board, BigFuture allows students to search for scholarships and get help paying for college. The website claims to have a database of more than 24,000 scholarships that award more than $1.5 billion annually. The website allows students to create a profile and get matched with scholarships they qualify for.

RaiseMe (https://www.raise.me/how-it-works)
The majority of scholarships are awarded to high school seniors, but RaiseMe advertises scholarships available to students as early as their freshman year. The website matches students with micro-scholarships, which RaiseMe defines as “a small grant that you can earn during high school or community college and put towards tuition at a four-year college or university.”

Appily (https://www.appily.com/)
Appily is another free resource that allows students to search both schools and scholarships that they qualify for based on their personal profile and demographics. You can search for scholarships based on your year in school, and after you complete a short questionnaire, the site filters schools and scholarships that may be applicable.

Niche (https://www.niche.com/colleges/scholarships/)
Along with searching for scholarships, Niche.com allows students to gain a sense of a school’s “personality” by reading student reviews, Hartley says. Similar to other websites, Niche matches students with scholarships that match their qualifications and provides essay-free scholarships, which some students may prefer.

Unigo (https://www.unigo.com/)
Unigo is another website that pairs students with scholarships that fit their profile. The website has more than 3.6 million athletic, merit-based and company-sponsored scholarships and grants in its database, as well as 650,000 college reviews, statistics and other data points to use when vetting schools.

Scholarships360 (https://scholarships360.org/about/)
After struggling to find scholarships on their own, brothers Will and Brian Geiger launched Scholarships360 in 2010 to help students find money for college. Since then, the website has offered a free database of thousands of scholarships that can be filtered by grade and demographic, plus scholarships that are easy to apply for and don’t require an essay.