As a mom of a graduating senior, we are exploring scholarships and were directed to fastweb by the guidance counselor. Is this reputable? From fastweb, if I click on “apply now”, it takes me to scholarshipowl, where we become eligible for other “scholarships”, and I’m just not sure. if I continue to follow the links, I end up with 10+ open windows and it seems they just want to gather my personal info! Can it be trusted or is there somewhere else to look? Thank you in advance!
Fastweb is reliable. But don’t hold your breath about getting significant scholarships from them. We know folks who applied for a LOT of different scholarships…and netted $500 or so.
How much do you need?
The Dept. Of Ed in the state where I live puts together a scholarship compendium for students each year, and other local scholarships are posted on our HS’s college counseling web pages, listing various scholarships by academic major, county, financial need, URM status, etc. Most of the deadlines have passed by now.
The best scholarships/merit aid will come from the colleges themselves, but that is contigient upon whether merit $ is offered, how much, and whether your kiddo is in the top of the applicant pool, so more likely to receive merit$.
Although I have heard that fastweb is not a scam site, if you do not fall within a long list of narrow qualifications, they usually are scholarships for small amounts, and are not renewable, and are often more like an online raffle contest.
Does your child have options which are affordable without winning outside scholarships? Keep in mind that if your child received need based aid, that aid may be reduced by outside scholarships, although some colleges will allow outside scholarship$ to replace federal loan, work study awards, and student contribution.
Local scholarships are best if available in your area. Most of those national ones you either don’t have a chance and/or they are mainly out to gather information. However, my DD’17 did win a national scholarship (renewable!) that we found on the Sallie Mae scholarship search- it was for her major of Graphic Design and they give out multiple which makes better odds. So if there are some that are more specific to major or some other aspect it helps.
My DD’19 is applying to a couple dozen local ones (our GC maintains a website for those), two affiliated with our church district, a couple statewide ones related to her intended major, one from a credit union and one from a student loan company in our state, maybe a couple national ones if she has time. Found them with Google, Facebook, GC, and luck.