Success The Turning Point

Author(s): Rajendra Rakhecha
Publisher: Rajendra Rakhecha

Page 50

Timely? Yes. CollegeNET.com updates its data monthly through its license agreement with data aggregator Wintergreen Orchard House.
Private? Yes. CollegeNET.com's privacy policy states, "We do not rent or sell personal information to third parties." However, if you are awarded a scholarship, you can opt in to their Scholarship Election System and share your data with the school that you designate.
Unique? Yes. In addition to the scholarship search, CollegeNET.com hosts an online community that invites students to create topics in an open forum, share their comments, and vote online to determine who is leading the most interesting conversation. By the end of the voting cycle every Wednesday, the student with the most votes wins between $3,000-$5,000 in scholarship money. This social networking scholarship is open to all students and is not based on traditional factors like GPA, age, or income level; you are not required to write essays, and the scholarship process is voted upon by your peers, rather than a panel of judges.
[Learn 5 ways you can create more scholarships.] - http://www.usnews.com/blogs/college-cash101/2010/05/18/5-ways-you-can-create-more-scholarships.html
3. Fastweb: Fastweb, which has helped 50 million students find money since the site was founded 15 years ago, was the first online scholarship matching service and the first free national scholarship matching service. Fastweb's site indicates they currently have roughly 1.5 million scholarships worth $3.4 billion in their database.
Timely? Definitely. According to Fastweb, they update their database daily-which would make them the timeliest of the five mentioned in this post. To assist in their process, Fastweb expires scholarships from their database after 11 months, forcing them to update the information before it can be relisted. Private? Yes, unless you expressly agree (opt in) to allow your information to be shared with third parties. Fastweb's privacy policy states that they do not share any information that can be tied to you without your permission.
Unique? Sure. Fastweb compiles their scholarship data in-house, and when new scholarships are added they send an E-mail notification to every student who matches the award.
[Read the 4 do's and 1 don't for finding scholarships.] - http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-scholarshipcoach/2010/12/08/4-dos-and-1-dont-for-finding-scholarships.html
4. Scholarships.com: Founded in 1999, Scholarships.com now claims to be the largest free and independent scholarship search and financial aid information resource on the Internet, with more than 2.7 million scholarships worth a total of $19 billion in their database.
Timely? Yes. Vice President Kevin Ladd says their database is updated daily. "We encourage scholarship providers to not only submit their scholarship to be included in our database, but also to update them." They also have a staff to review new and edited listings, and "every few months or so" they review all scholarships for changes, errors, or inconsistencies.
Private? You bet. Users supply only the information they choose and are offered opportunities to opt out of receiving anything they don't want-even at the time of registration. (See Scholarships.com's privacy policy.)
Unique? Maybe. Ladd and the folks at Scholarships.com feel their database and user experience is superior to all others out there and that their resources and the effort they put into making sure the information they have is useful is unmatched.
50