<p>So I was searching fastweb, and I visited this website called Ashley's Dream to look at the description of a scholarship, and noticed that in the guestbook at least ten people had signed saying how inspirational and beautiful the site was over the past few days and when it said "how did you find this site?" they responded "fastweb." And if that many people from fastweb searched around the site for long enough to be moved by it and sign the guestbook, how many more just found the scholarship and applied for it? It made me think that fastweb is really over-used and it seems really unlikely that I would actually win a scholarship from any place listed on it. Practically every article and GC recommends it. Not to mention that it is annoying and takes forever to weed out all the ones I don't even qualify for.</p>
<p>Do you use fastweb? Have you found that half the scholarships in your search listings have passed the deadline or are for graduate students with a parent police officer killed in the line of duty (or some other specific thing like that which very obvisously does not pertain to you)? And do you think that too many people use it for it to be worth my time?</p>
<p>Veronique, my experience with fastweb has been similar - either the scholarships are too specific, or are so wide open that they may draw thousands of applicants.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I think that checking these sites is a good idea; you might luck out and find one of those really specific ones that actually fit your circumstances.</p>
<p>You are more likely to find scholarships that fit, though, by checking with your high school GC (local scholarships are often less competitive), your intended college (they may have a geographic scholarship program for your state or city, or perhaps your major), and employers (yours and your parents). Employer scholarships are often not competitive at all. I know kids who worked part time jobs, applied for a scholarship with their employer, and ended up with thousands in awards. These awards turned a low-wage job into a big winner. Good luck!</p>
<p>Roger is right - my kids made out like bandits with local and regional scholarships (thousands and thousands of dollars). However, I know someone who won a Carpe Diem scholarship, found on fastweb - they pay $5,000 a year for a full 4 years as long as you keep the grades up....it costs $14 to apply, but is NOT a scam. This year's winners were from (or going to) Harvard, Stanford, Bowdoin, Princeton, Georgetown etc.</p>