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To be considered for federal financial aid, you must complete and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Most states, colleges, and universities also use the FAFSA to award other types of institutional financial aid, including state- and college-sponsored financial aid, such as grants, educational loans, and work-study programs.

If you don’t get your FAFSA submitted by the deadline, you might be missing out on free money. Don’t do that. Make sure you know all the applicable federal, state, and college deadlines. Get that money!

In this article, we'll discuss when you should submit the FAFSA and how to ensure you don't miss any important deadlines. We'll also explain the financial aid process after you submit your FAFSA.

Aside from grants and loans, private scholarships are some of the best ways to help fund your college education. There are thousands of scholarships out there for high school seniors, all with different eligibility requirements, deadlines, and award amounts, so it's definitely worth your time to do some research.

Senior year is prime crunch time when it comes to your college scholarship search. If you’re just starting the search process and need a little help getting off on the right foot, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve compiled a list of some of the best college scholarships for high school seniors based on availability and award amounts. These scholarships are generally flexible (so you’ll be able to use them at any accredited college you attend), and they also don’t have any geographical restrictions (so you’re eligible to apply no matter where you live in the US).

If you’re a high school senior of Hispanic or Latinx heritage, you'll definitely want to learn more about the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF). With more than 150 types of scholarships available through this program, there’s a lot to learn—and a lot to win!

When you submit an HSF award scholarship, you’re actually submitting yourself for consideration for many different awards (much like when you submit a FAFSA). I’ll talk about all the details you’ll need to take into consideration before submitting your own application for Hispanic scholarships. Then, we'll take a look at application strategies for current high school seniors.

If you’re hoping to be far from home for college but are worried about the cost of an out-of-state school, you might run into some issues in the application process. How do you find out-of-state schools that still offer relatively cheap tuition?

In this article, I’ve compiled a list of schools that offer the lowest tuition rates and highest rates of institutional aid to out-of-state students who choose to attend. Keep reading to learn what these schools are!

Did you know that your extracurricular activities can earn you money for college?

In particular, there are a lot of scholarships available to students who have chosen to spend their free time helping out others in their communities through volunteer work.

Read on for the most complete lists of volunteer scholarships available. We've divided the scholarships by type so you can tell easily if you qualify.

It's never too early to start saving up money for your college education. Even if you are only in your first or second year of high school, there are plenty of opportunities to start bringing in money that will pay for your tuition, books, fees, and living expenses a couple of years down the line.

You might be surprised to learn that there are actually hundreds of scholarships available to underclassmen. If you're just starting your hunt, use this list of the 37 best scholarships for high school freshmen and sophomores to get started.

One of the most important questions you will have to ask yourself during your college selection process is whether or not your top choice school is affordable for your family.

Affordability has a huge impact on college decisions. Some students will luck out and be offered a nice scholarship by their school that will make things affordable. Others will win independent scholarships. Usually, though, both of these options for financing your education are based on merit, and there is a lot of competition.

But did you know that some schools are committed to making sure all admitted students can afford to attend, regardless of whether they are scholarship recipients?

Read on to see a list of colleges that meet full need, or provide for 100% of their students’ demonstrated financial need.

If you're looking into scholarship programs to help pay for your college education, the famous Coca-Cola scholarships are a good place to start. Why are they famous? Well, the Coca-Cola foundation offers some of the most generous awards out there to graduating high school seniors. They tend to be very competitive, so if you want a shot at the scholarship, you should learn as much about them as you possibly can. 

In this post, I'll talk about some of the logistical concerns you might have about the scholarship— things like deadlines and eligibility requirements. But more importantly, I'll also offer helpful tips and strategies to give your application the boost it needs. Read on to optimize your chances of winning one of these competitive scholarships!

The full-ride Scholarship: the most mythical of scholarships that all students secretly (or not-so-secretly) dream of. Unfortunately, these scholarships are hard to come by, and they're even more difficult to win.

Though many schools offer full-ride or full-tuition scholarships, there are also a handful of scholarships out there—run by independent organizations and even the government—that you can use at almost any school. Read on to learn about some of the most highly sought-after scholarships in the country.

Scholarships are awesome resources if you’re checking out different ways to pay for college. It’s free money after all—what’s not to love?

As it turns out, most scholarship programs have application processes that aren’t exactly lovable. Students generally have to submit a lot of information about themselves: transcripts, GPAs, test scores, resumes, community service activities, and so on. There might even be a few essays and grade requirements thrown in as well. You don’t want to complain—because, again, free money—but these applications sure are tedious when you’re working on college apps, high school courses, and financial aid applications all at the same time.

The following easy scholarships have application processes that are a bit more manageable. Some ask you to write short essays, while others don’t require any essays at all! The awards might not be as large as some other scholarships out there, but when the application process is so easy, you really don’t have much to lose. I'll start off with some words of warning before getting into the good stuff: essay and no-essay scholarships that are so easy to apply for, you might end up applying to all of them!

The Bright Futures scholarship programs are great resources for Florida students who plan on staying in-state for college. As with any scholarship program, though, there's a lot of information to process about the awards. Just sifting through all the eligibility requirements and award limitations can be overwhelming, never mind figuring out how to actually submit an application. 

In this guide, I've compiled all the information you need about the Bright Futures scholarships. I'll talk about the different award programs, their eligibility requirements, the application process, and strategies to help you win your own. 

Many students think that they should start looking at college scholarships once they actually start applying to college—so, sometime early on in their senior year. Although it’s true that many big-name scholarships require applicants to be high school seniors, there are some great awards out there for younger students as well.

So why not get a head start in applying for scholarship awards? You could win money for college, sure, but you’ll also get experience in the scholarship application process before submitting even more applications your senior year.

I’ve compiled a list of scholarships for high school juniors. This list will be a great place to start, but you might also want to search for more targeted awards (e.g., by geographic area). You can browse the scholarships below based on whether they're competitions or merit-based scholarships. Read to the end for tips and strategies on getting the most scholarship money possible!

You may have thought that scholarships were only for those who had great grades or were top athletes. Well, think again! There are a lot of organizations willing to give you some college cash in recognition of your interesting habits, unusual attributes, or willingness to do something a little bit quirky!

Here's a complete collection of the best weird, unusual scholarships we could find. The good news is they're often a lot easier to apply to than other scholarships.

The Gates Millennium Scholarship program is hugely impactful; since 2000, over 17,000 scholars have received over $845 million in scholarship aid. These numbers are overwhelming in the most amazing way possible. 

The program's mission is to provide opportunities for outstanding minority students to reach their highest potential. I'll go through all the details of the scholarship and the application protocols; after that, I'll give you tips & strategies to putting together the strongest Gates Millennium Scholarship application possible. Read on to learn more! 

NOTE: 2016 was the last year for the Gates Millenium Scholarship Program. We'll update this page when more information about future programs becomes available.

Do you have the brains and passion to become an engineer, but you're worried about the cost of the education?

The following list of scholarships will show you that you have nothing to fear. Students of all backgrounds will find that there is an engineering scholarship out there for students like them that will help to make that seemingly unaffordable education slightly more palatable.

Read on to see what engineering scholarships you may be eligible for!