There are many free website databases that offer current information on scholarships and grants. Be very careful of any website that requires you to pay for the information or guarantees you will obtain a scholarship or grant for a fee.

There are two types of scholarship databases: original source databases that have been researched first-hand, and licensed databases that are just copies of one of the original sources. Source databases may have some overlapping information, but they are all worth checking. It’s probably not worth your time to use licensed databases since you’ll just be searching the same data multiple times and getting the same results. Licensed databases can also be up to a year out of date, but source databases are kept current.

When searching a database, you should use both the detailed matching system that finds scholarships based on your personal information (age, gender, GPA, subject, etc.), as well as the category browsing mode. A search might find scholarships for piano players, but might miss a general scholarship for musical talent. It takes more time doing both methods, but you won’t miss anything.

You should check each of these source databases since each has slightly different data:

Highest Quality Free Databases

• Fastweb – broken down in to different application categories from high school students through to educators and college students
• CollegeBoard – you will be required to complete an online questionnaire to narrow down scholarships and grants. There is no cost involved for the search.
• Scholarships.com
• Sallie Mae Scholarships – and Grants. You will need to register but there is also a drawing for a scholarship with free registration.
• Federal Student Aid – Keyword search for scholarships across the United States.

Owned by Education Lenders

• Peterson’s
• NextStudent Database
• ScholarshipExperts.com
• FastAid
• FreSch Scholarship Database
• Wintergreen/Orchard House Scholarship Database – many websites license this database, CollegeNet.com is one of the best known.
• CollegeData (a subset of the Peterson’s database)