Let’s face it… college is an expensive as heck 4 years (or more for some of us). I mean, we have to pay tuition, food, housing, transportation, books (ridiculous!). By the time you’re done it can be $50,000 or more.

I think I’m a lot like you.

I graduated college a little over a year ago, NOT a straight A student, do some extra carricular activities… but not a ton,… and my parents don’t make a million bucks a year.

And guess what…

I was able to get $45,421 in free college scholarships which completely paid for every single dime of my college expenses. Nope, I’m not some smart dude that won a ton of academic scholarships (I did get a few though)… most of my scholarships came from other places and a little bit of hard work finding and applying for scholarships.

Anyhow, I want to “pay it forward” and tell you how I went about getting over $45,000 in scholarships… and how you can get free college scholarships too.

How (and where) I Found, Free College Scholarships To Apply For

Online:

One of the first places I went to find scholarships was the internet. There are a ton of free scholarships online… and after way too many hours of pounding away at the keyboard… I found some great places online to find scholarships.

You’ll even see one of the sites that I actually got a pretty darn big scholarship from… all for free.

Here are the places that I found the best list of free college scholarships… and these are the ones that aren’t all scammy (there are some scams out there… but the ones that are legit are written below).

Fastweb.com -

*(my favorite scholarship search site)

Fastweb is my favorite place to search for scholarships. It takes about 10 minutes to set up a free account (here’s a video of me showing how to set up an account at fastweb).I actually ended up getting a multi-thousand dollar scholarship from Fastweb… pretty cool stuff.

Why I like Fastweb

Fastweb is a cool site because it’s completely free and it has the largest database of scholarships that I was able to find. In the video I made of me creating a free account and doing a search… it came up with something like 35 scholarships that fit my criteria.

Also, Fastweb actually emails you every time a new scholarship comes up that fits your criteria (based on some questions they ask while setting up your free account). This is cool because you don’t have to log in all of the time to see if there are new scholarships for you… they tell you automatically.

Another reason is that in Fastweb they make it easy to see the deadlines for the scholarships and show you how to apply. When a scholarship deadline is a week or two away, they shoot you an email reminding you.

How I rate Fastweb Overall

Overall, I really love Fastweb. Like I said, I ended up getting a several thousand dollar scholarship from it… and it only takes like 10 minutes to set up a free account. Well worth it if you ask me.

If I had to rate Fastweb on a scale…

Ease of Use:
Number of Scholarships:
Best Chance of Finding Scholarships For You:
Overall:

So, overall… for me, Fastweb is something that EVERYONE looking for college scholarships should sign up for (once again it’s free!).

Check out Fastweb and watch the video of me setting up a free account over there.

————————–

Free College Scholarships.net -

This website is a lot like Fastweb, but has some different scholarships. Overall, I liked Fastweb better, but this one is definitely worth using because I found that it had scholarships Fastweb didn’t have… and Fastweb had scholarships that Free College Scholarships didn’t have.Head over to Free College Scholarships <<

Why I Like This Site…

Like I said, this site isn’t as good (in my opinion) as Fastweb… but it is a great source to find some scholarships that Fastweb doesn’t have. They have a $10,000 scholarship giveaway themselves every few months… so that’s a bonus just for setting up a free scholarship search account.

As with Fastweb, this site has millions of dollars of free scholarships in their database… and make it pretty darn easy to search for ones that match your criteria. Just like Fastweb, they have to make their money somehow… so there are some ads during the process… but you can easily click “no” if you’re not interested. To me, this is a pain… but well worth it in the end because they come up with some great scholarships that I wasn’t able to find anywhere else.

How I Rate FreeCollegeScholarships.net Overall…

Overall this site is cool… but I would put more time into Fastweb if I were you. I actually signed up for free college scholarship search accounts on both sites (and a few others that ended up being scammy and crappy) and found it way easier to find scholarships on these sites than by doing my own searches on Google.

Ease of Use:
Number of Scholarships:
Best Chance of Finding Scholarships For You:
Overall:

There are other scholarship search sites out there… but they really aren’t worth linking to because they seemed to me to be a bit too scammy that I don’t feel comfortable sending you there (do searches for free scholarships… you’ll find the one’s I’m talking about).

So, head over to:

• Fastweb - Sign up for a free scholarship search account at Fastweb
• Free College Scholarships - Get a free account over there

Finding Scholarships Other Ways…

There are a ton of other ways that I went out and found college scholarships (online was the easiest)… and actually the most effective ways I found are:

• School Senior Counselor - Probably about 1/3 of my scholarships came from my high school senior counselors office. Just go in there and ask them for applications to scholarships… they usually have a ton of them that you can look through to see if they fit you.
• The Colleges You Apply For - About 1/2 of the scholarships I got ended up coming from the colleges I applied for. Every college has academic related scholarships that are mainly based off of your GPA and SAT scores… but, what most people forget is that most colleges have scholarship foundations. The whole purpose of these foundations is to give out scholarship money to incoming students. Find the scholarship foundations at the colleges you are applying to (through the financial aid office) and ask them for a list of scholarships.

There are a billion places to find people and organizations that want to give away money in the form of scholarships.

Here Are Some Other Articles That You Should Read To Improve Your Chances Of Getting Scholarships

• Resources for Free Scholarships
• Weird Scholarships - Scholarships most people don’t know about… but that a ton of people qualify for.
• How I Didn’t Pay A Dime for College - Gives you some tips on what to do to increase your chances of getting scholarships. Great read.

The other day a reader named Anne C. from Georgia asked me the simple question of:

“How do I get scholarships?”

Well Anne… this answer isn’t exactly simple… but it isn’t very complicated either.  I’ll give you a brief outline of what colleges look for, and point you toward other resources to help you get college scholarships.

First off,

Read my article that I wrote called, “Free Scholarships - How I didn’t Pay a Dime for College”. 

That article is a work in progress and I continually add new information and resources onto that page. 

Second,

Realize that getting scholarships is a NUMBERS GAME as much as it skill

Yep, it’s a numbers game.  Just like if you are a salesman, the more potential customers you visit… the more sales you’ll generate (unless you’re the worst salesman in the world).

So, don’t be too picky when deciding on which scholarships to apply for.  Apply for as many as you humanly can while still keeping each application a high quality. 

I’m not saying to just mass produce your scholarship applications… the scholarship committee will probably see right through it…

… what I am saying is to apply for as many good scholarships as you can to increase your odds of winning some of them.

If you only apply for 2 or 3… odds are that you will only win one (OR NONE).

Third,

Start as early as you can strengthening your resume

By your resume I mean everything that the college scholarship committee’s look at, including:

• Your grades - Work hard to get your GPA at least over 3.5 for the best chances of getting scholarships
• The SAT and ACT tests - Take the SAT seriously.  Many scholarship applications require a minimum SAT score to qualify.  Usually it’s something like a 1000 -1200… sometimes higher… sometimes lower.
• Extracurricular activities- Go out an volunteer for a few things.  Join a club or two related to your career goals.  Do something to show the scholarship committee’s that you are a well rounded student… and person.
• Reference letters - Start in your junior year or early in your senior year getting a feel for who you can get great reference letters from.  I happen to know very well the registrar at a college I applied to… so I had her write me a great reference letter.  Ask a teacher who knows you well that can give a great reference for your ability as a student and a person.

Get those elements above rolling as soon as you can and you’ll be way ahead of the students who put it off until later in their senior year in high school.

Fourth,

Look at local, national, and college specific scholarships

Don’t count yourself out on any scholarships.  I applied for probably 5 - 8 national scholarships (I got one that paid me $4,000), about 10-15 local scholarships, and probably another 10-15 college specific scholarship. 

So, apply for all of those little $500 local scholarships (they really add up), those big $5, 10, 20,000 national scholarships, and all of the college specific ones you can find.

I actually used a website called Fastweb to look for the national scholarships… it is free… really easy, and has a ton of scholarships right here online.  Check it out and set up a free account to get going on that.

All in all, successfully getting college scholarships is both a process and making sure you work hard your junior and senior years in high school to meet the scholarship GPA and SAT requirements.

That is a quick and dirty overview of what it takes to get scholarships.  I’ll go in more depth and give you step-by-step instructions on how to get that scholarship you want.  Until then, browse the rest of the site, set up an account at Fastweb to start searching for scholarships, and get your butt in gear making sure your grades, SAT, and reference letters are in-line. 

I know, the title of this article kind of hypey sounding.  I don’t like hype… but, when you think about it… it isn’t really hype if it’s all true… is it?

Anyhow, yes, the title of the article is true.

Here’s the story of how I did it… and how you can find scholarships to help pay for college too.

Okay, I’m not going to tell you that I was a C student… screwed around in class… had no business going to college… etc.  If that was you, I’m going to be straight with you and let you know that it’s going to be a bit more difficult.

But, almost anyone who can get into a college is probably eligible for some scholarships out there.

Anyhow, here’s the process that I took that got me enough scholarships to pay for 100% of my college.

Setting the Foundation -

Ideally, you want to start in your freshman year of high school (I actually didn’t figure it out until my junior year) and make sure that you are laying the right path toward getting scholarships.

I know, your freshman and sophomore years are the years that you are at the bottom of the barrel and are trying to climb up in the social world of high school.  But, I’m going to tell you right now… getting good (or at least decent grades) grades does not mean you are a nerd.  That’s weak thinking if you ask me.

What is more cool? 

• Acting “cool” by not doing your home work, not trying your hardest, and looking like a “bad ass” to impress a few people.  And watching your friends go to college… while you sit at home because you either couldn’t get into a college… or you can’t afford it.

or

• Actually giving a damn about your future, doing your best, attracting attention for being known as a go getter, and actually getting into school… and maybe even not paying for college at all.

Hmmmm…

That’s a tough one. 

I was kind of more in the first group in my freshman and sophomore years.  I thought it wasn’t all that important that I get my GPA up over 3.5. 

But, I was lucky enough to have an older brother who was a senior when I was a freshman… and he was the guy in the first group all of the way through high school.  I love the guy… but guess what happened to him?

He couldn’t get into a 4 year school, got no scholarships, and ended up not finishing college while his friends (even the one that everyone coined as the screw off) made it through college to graduate.

That really lit a fire under my ass and made me realize that I could still have fun, be “cool”, and get my work done in high school all at the same time.

So, what did I do to set my foundation for getting scholarships and getting into pretty much any school I wanted?

1. I started to actually care and apply myself.  School is a heck of a lot more interesting when you actually try something and conquer it.  My grades have always been decent, but in my first two years of high school I let them slip a bit so I was around a 3.2.  At the end of my junior year I sat down and calculated what grades I needed to get in my senior year to meet the scholarship qualifications for the colleges I wanted to go to.  My main college choices all required at least a 3.75 GPA to qualify for their scholarships. My calculations showed me that I had to get straight A’s my entire senior year in order to get that 3.75.  The only problem is that I had never gotten straight A’s in high school up to that point.  For most people… that’s a problem.  But, for those who are determined to get what they want… it’s just a challenge.
2. I took the hardest classes I could find… not the easy ways out.  Colleges look at more than just your grades.  My best friend that I have known since I was 1 year old… well, his mom is the Registrar at a top college here in Oregon.  So, I talked to her about what colleges look for when giving out scholarships. One of her biggest answers was that they like to see that you didn’t loaf your senior year.  Most kids use their senior year to relax and take only the classes they needed to take to graduate.  Those are the people that usually don’t get too far in life.  So, I made sure that I still took as many classes as I could… and that the classes were the honors classes (or at least the highest level class I could possibly take).  Hey, I’d rather get a B in an honors class any day of the week than get an A in the low level class.So, don’t loaf.  Take the honors and AP classes.  Colleges like to see that on the resume and application.
3. Volunteering isn’t as bad as it seems… it actually is pretty fun.  Another thing that my buddies mom (the college Registrar) taught me was that you need to be (or at least look like) a well-rounded person. Ya, grades are fine and dandy… but when I later applied for Law School… I learned that grades really are like #2 or #3 on the list of importance.So, I went out and volunteered for stuff.  Don’t just go out and volunteer for any ol’ thing.  Do something that you’ll actually enjoy so you will stick with it a little longer. A few things I volunteered for were:
   
   1. Spent time w/ elderly at a nursing home once a week.  These people are lonely and just like to talk to people.  It really made me feel great every time I went too. 
   2. Volunteered as a baseball coach for little leaguers (this was hilarious!)
   3. Helped at the March of Dimes walk a few years in a row
   4. Helped run a canned food drive for Thanksgiving dinner baskets
   5. Did a toy drive for needy children
4. I joined a school club or two that interested me.  Extra curricular activities are pretty important to college admissions and scholarship comittees.  Baseball was always my thing, so I at least could put that I was on the varsity baseball team for 3 years (we won the state championship my junior year too!).  But, I also joined a club called FBLA. FBLA is a business club that helps you hone your business skills.  I joined it my senior year just to get another thing on my college resume… but I actually enjoyed it.  So, look at your interests… and see if there is a school club that you can join.  And… NO, it isn’t nerdy to join these clubs.  Once again, what is nerdy is sitting on your ass at home when you are 20 because you couldn’t get into college… or racking up $50,000 in student loans because you couldn’t get any scholarships. 
5. Almost there… I didn’t say it would be extremely easy to get ALL of your school paid for… did I?  Then, I went out and searched for scholarships that I even remotely qualified for.Believe it or not, there are some weird ass scholarships out there… scholarships for pretty much anything.  I found one for left-handed veterans in my search… but I didn’t apply for that one, DARN!  But, I did find a ton that I did qualify for.  
   Look Locally:  There are a ton of local and school centered scholarships out there for the taking.  I didn’t know about any of these before I went to my senior class counselor and asked her.  She happily handed me a whole stack of local scholarships that I could apply for.  Most of these ones aren’t huge… but they sure did add up for me.

   Look at the College:  Almost every college has some type of scholarship foundation that you can apply to.  I ended up getting about $1,500 a term from one foundation scholarship just by filling out the application and sending it in.  If you don’t send in the application, you are guaranteeing to NOT get the scholarship.Search Online:  This was one way that I found a ton of cool scholarships to apply for, and actually won a scholarship that paid me $1,000 a year for 4 years.  There are a ton of free scholarship search databases out there. 

   The one that I liked the best was Fastweb.  Here’s a link to search for scholarships for free.  Just fill in the questionnaire form so they can set up your free account and find scholarships that match you… and you’re on your way.

   FastWeb Free Scholarship Search <<

   Find as many scholarships as you can that you qualify for and apply to as many as you can without going crazy.  I think I qualified for something like 20-30 scholarships and ended up getting enough to pay for all 4 years of undergraduate, plus I usually actually got money back every term… so I made money going to college!But, I wouldn’t have gotten any of them… and I’d still be forking over cash to the student loan sharks if I didn’t have the confidence to apply myself and give myself a chance.

So, that’s my quick and dirty story of how I built my foundation for getting college scholarships.  No, it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world… but neither is paying student loans for 10 years or working at McDonalds because you couldn’t get into college.

The most important thing about setting your foundation for getting scholarships is to know that you don’t get anything you want unless you try.  So, if you truly want to go to college… and you really don’t feel like paying back $50-$75,000 in student loans… apply yourself now and set your foundation for successfully getting scholarships.

In other articles I describe how to go about finding scholarships, applying, writing your essay, and a ton more.

So, if you are in high school or are a bit older but are heading back to college… I’d suggest bookmarking our site.  Not only do we give you useful and actionable information… but we provide you with discounts and tools that will help make college life a whole lot easier for you.