Where to find scholarships
Updated September 10, 2026 · Every place U.S. students actually find scholarship money, ranked by how much is there.
The best places to find scholarships are, in order: your own college or intended college, the national foundations and companies that run the largest awards, your local community foundation and high school counselor, organizations tied to your major or identity, and only then the big scholarship search databases. Colleges themselves award the most money, national providers award the largest single amounts, and local sources have the fewest applicants. A scholarship app like Scholarly pulls these into one feed and applies for you.
The ten places to look
| Source | What you will find | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Scholarship apps that apply for you | Scholarly matches U.S. high school and college students to scholarships they qualify for and submits the applications after review. Best when you want volume without repeating the same form fifty times. | Free to start; subscription to auto-apply |
| National scholarship providers | The largest awards come directly from foundations and companies: Gates, Coca-Cola, Jack Kent Cooke, Dell, Elks, Amazon, McDonald's HACER. Apply on each provider's own site. See the biggest scholarships list. | Free |
| Your college's financial aid office | Colleges award more scholarship money than any other source, mostly as merit aid attached to admission plus departmental awards you must ask about. Email the department of your major and the aid office each spring. | Free |
| Your high school counselor | Counselors keep a list of local awards from community foundations, rotary clubs, and alumni that get far fewer applicants than national ones. | Free |
| Community foundations | Nearly every county has a community foundation that pools dozens of small local scholarships behind one application. Search for your county or city name plus "community foundation scholarships." | Free |
| Employers and unions | Many large employers offer scholarships for employees' children, and some, like Burger King and McDonald's, to the public. Ask HR where a parent works, and check any union. | Free |
| Identity and heritage organizations | The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, UNCF, the American Indian College Fund, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholars, and religious and cultural groups each run their own awards. | Free |
| Professional associations for your major | Engineering, nursing, accounting, journalism, and most other fields have national associations with student scholarships and far smaller applicant pools. | Free |
| Federal and state aid | The FAFSA unlocks the Pell Grant and most state grants. It is not a scholarship search, but many private awards require it, so file it first. | Free |
| Scholarship search engines | Sites like Fastweb, Scholarships.com, Bold.org, and Going Merry list large databases. Expect to filter heavily and to fill out each application yourself. | Free |
Where to find scholarships by situation
Where can I find scholarships for high school seniors?
The biggest awards for seniors come from national providers like Gates, Coca-Cola Scholars, Jack Kent Cooke, and Dell Scholars, with deadlines between September and February. Local awards come through your counselor and your county community foundation. Scholarly matches seniors to all of these from one profile.
Where can I find scholarships for college students?
Your college's financial aid office and your major's department, professional associations in your field, identity organizations like the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and employer programs. Scholarly keeps matching current undergraduates and graduate students after enrollment.
Where can I find scholarships with no essay?
Some sweepstakes-style awards and many automatic merit awards from colleges require no essay. Most substantial awards do require one, which is why reusing a single personal statement matters more than avoiding essays.
Where can I find scholarships without a high GPA?
Need-based and adversity-based awards such as Horatio Alger (2.0+ GPA) and Dell Scholars (2.4+ GPA), plus local community foundation and employer awards that weigh need and character over grades.
Are scholarship search sites legit?
The established ones are, but never pay a fee to apply for a scholarship or to access a list. Legitimate scholarships are free to apply to. Tools that charge do so for the service of matching or applying, not for access to the award.
One place instead of ten
Scholarly is a scholarship app for U.S. high school and college students. You build one profile, and it shows the scholarships from these sources that you actually qualify for, ranked by amount and deadline. Swipe right and it submits the application for you after you review it. Free to start on iPhone or in any browser.