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How to get started
So how do you find the right scholarships? First, get started early. The student's junior year in high school is a good time to start your survey.Next, don't pay anyone to help you search. It's not necessary and it's usually a waste of time. Even if the search service comes back with a long list, chances are your student will qualify for only a fraction of the aid. Most of the decent scholarships can be found quickly and for free.
You can check out one of the many Internet scholarship search engines, such as the one run by student lender Sallie Mae, FastWeb.com or Scholarships.com.
You also could spend time with books that summarize available scholarships, such as Chronicle Financial Aid Guide.
An even better place to start, however, is your own community. Here's a partial list of places to check:
- High school clubs, teams and guidance counselors. Ask the club's adviser, the team's coach and your child's counselor to help you look for appropriate scholarships.
- Your employer. Many large employers, and even some smaller ones, have scholarship programs. Ask the human-resources department.
- Your union. Chances are good either your local or the national organization, or both, has some money to give out.
- Your church, temple or mosque.
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- Your community's service organizations. You may not need to be a member of the local Elks, Rotary or Kiwanis for your child to enter.
- Professional or other organizations, either that you belong to or that represent people working in the areas your child wants to pursue. The Alaska Visitors Association, for example, has scholarships for Alaska residents interested in careers in travel or hotel management.
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- Ethnic or religious organizations. You probably know that the NAACP has scholarships, but so do groups for those of Italian, Polish, Swiss, Chinese and Armenian backgrounds, to name just a few. The Web scholarship engines can help you look.
- Your city, county or state government. Some states even offer free tuition at in-state public colleges for those who maintained a B average in school -- including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, and West Virginia.
Liz Pulliam Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "Your Credit Score: Your Money & What's at Stake." Weston’s award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.
Updated May 5, 2009
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