I’ve read stories about how people applied to “unknown” scholarships, the ones that pay like $500-$2000, and got a full ride from adding those scholarships up. Is this really achievable? Where could I find these obscure scholarships? My guess would be online, but those can be accessed by anyone. I was thinking that local institutions could have obscure scholarships? Anyone have any luck at this?
Obscure scholarships one obtains are obscure for a reason - AKA thousands of people do not know about them, so looking at online options might not get you far. You are best off looking for scholarships through your local community as businesses or organizations may be offering them. Honestly, these stories you read are few and far between, as this kind of thing doesn’t typically happen as many outside scholarships are not renewable for 4 years.
@kgos16 that was what I was thinking. Does looking at you school’s college and career center for scholarships actually work?
Are you a current college student? I would imagine it just depends if your school’s offices keep good records of available scholarships that they receive notification of. I don’t know of too many offices that have the time or the staffing to do so, but it wouldn’t hurt to give them a call.
I don’t believe people get college paid for with these scholarships. Too rare, too puny, frankly. One scholarship at a school my son applied to required a set of twins to both go there, that’s how unusual they can be.
You would need a bunch of them to get a full ride. You would be lucky to find one and get one. No, I don’t know any unknown scholarships. I have not seen an invisible man either. 
We have been surprised at how few people apply for even the big scholarships, so I assume there are some small ones that hardly anyone applies for. Kids don’t want to spend the time writing an app and an essay for $500, but that is a pretty good hourly wage if you win. We were shocked to learn that only 70 kids applied for a local $5500 scholarship - and 2 scholarships were granted. 1 in 35 is pretty good odds!
One way to find the obscure scholarships is to create a list of what is unique about you (red hair, extra tall, love to fish, of Scottish descent, etc.), then google each with the word scholarship attached. Did you know there is a scholarship for turkey hunters? Yep. I googled “turkey hunter scholarship” and found one for my son to apply for.
some are very local or you have to meet specific criteria.
Our water company has a scholarship but you have to be getting a degree in horticulture and stay in state.
Our electric company is a COOP and the easiest scholarship I have seen. Parents have to be members of the COOP, student have an acceptance letter and complete the simple application. A drawing is done from all the qualified applicants.
My buddy had no clue about the electric company even though he pays the monthly bill. He never read the monthly newsletter which advertises the scholarship for at least 5-6 months.
The other issue is these scholarships are not for 4 years but have to be applied for each year so it isn’t a consistent amount of money which can be relied upon.
@kgos16 No I am sill in high school.
Touch base with your high school guidance counselor. Sometimes they have leads on scholarships that your high school might offer or funds from local organizations.
We’ve found many random ones by checking the college webpages of random high schools. It’s amazing how organized some of the pages are. Also googling local companies and organizations plus the word scholarship has proved fruitful.
Our HS yearbook lists the scholarships won by graduating seniors. That was a great source for my kids - they looked at the past few yearbooks and found a couple scholarships to look into - just googled the names of the scholarships and applied for the couple that looked promising. Remember - the scholarships that are small and for only one year may have the fewest applicants and therefore be the easiest to win!
@Rdtsmith, we did that as well - looked at all the counselors’ websites in our own district, since that is where scholarships are listed, then looked at other high schools’ scholarship lists online. Also, after my oldest wasted lots of time applying for LOTS of scholarships, we got a bit smarter. Now, if the app looks like a lot of work, I google it to see if there are bios posted of previous winners. If all the past winners are way out of my kids’ league, that is usually a signal to not bother (it was a judgment call - for example, if the scholarship is not need based, but all the other winners came from very disadvantaged backgrounds, well perhaps that is one my kid should pass on).