There are many ways to search for scholarships, and remember, there is never a reason to pay money for a scholarship search service! The most respected scholarship searches and lists are available free of charge. Your college's financial aid website, employers (both the student's and parent's), places of worship, local organizations (ex: rotary clubs, women's organizations) and volunteer organizations are also sources of scholarships. 

Scholarship search engines allow you to search for a wide variety of scholarships and give you the ability to look for scholarships through filtered searches. You may search for scholarships by categories and characteristics such as school, location, GPA, talents and interests, ethnicity or military affiliation. 

A word of caution. While it's widely considered a good move to sign up for a scholarship search, every time you register with a search engine you risk your personal details being shared with marketers. You can expect to receive many emails that may not fit. You may see advice to sign up for multiple search engines, but much of the information received from those sites will overlap. Signing up for only one of the respected sites will reduce the influx of information. Another suggestion would be to create an email account dedicated only to your search so your personal email doesn't get clogged with scholarship emails. 

Yes! Many scholarships, large and small, are available to students, especially incoming freshmen, through the schools to which you’re applying. We strongly recommend you visit the financial aid pages at the schools you’re interested in attending to get a better idea of the awards you would be eligible to receive. You will be automatically considered for some scholarships just by applying to the school, while others will require additional information in order to apply. Not only are general scholarships available, many are also offered for the various colleges and majors within the university system. 

Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Information page that gives helpful information on Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams.

Yes! If you are the fortunate recipient of a scholarship, it is highly appropriate to respond with a letter thanking the person or organization granting the award.  The University of Iowa College of Business provided the template below for writing a thank you letter. Use this template as a guide, but make your letter your own, and genuine.

How to Write a Thank You Letter for a Scholarship