Platforms

Sallie Mae Scholarship Search (86/100)

Updated: December 26, 2019

HONORABLE MENTION

Ranks #2

Score: 86/100

After assessing the merits and shortcomings of 15 different scholarship platforms, we found that, overall, the second best scholarship platform was Sallie Mae’s Scholarship Search, which earned a total score of 86 out of 100 across all of the scoring categories. Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Sallie Mae’s reputation and decades-long involvement with education loans and student savings tools.

Currently, Sallie Mae boasts a scholarship platform that gives students access to a pool of available funding worth $24 billion, spread across over 5 million scholarships. This was the most funding of all the platforms we analyzed. Sallie Mae also earned a high score for the breadth of available scholarship opportunities, which range from traditional merit scholarships to those specifically designed for students with particular hobbies, skills, or interests.

The platform also features a variety of new scholarship opportunities and many with rapidly approaching deadlines. The scholarships can be easily sorted by amount or deadline, so that students can organize their time effectively in order to decide which scholarships to apply for and when to submit applications. The scholarship list is updated daily, which makes Sallie Mae a very useful tool for students who are in the midst of determining how they will finance their education. The scholarships range in value from several hundred dollars all the way up to full tuition.

The vast majority of Sallie Mae’s funding is not unique to that platform, as it simply provides access to a scholarship database, albeit a very extensive one. In other words, most of the scholarships listed on the Sallie Mae platform can also be found in other scholarship databases. However, Sallie Mae does have a few exclusive funding opportunities, namely the “Bridging the Dream” scholarships for undergraduate ($25,000) and graduate students ($20,000), as well as a $1,000 monthly sweepstakes open to all users and a $5,000 sweepstakes for National Scholarship Month every November.

In addition to scoring highly in terms of the wealth of funding opportunities that it offers, Sallie Mae earned high scores across all of the “Trustworthiness” metrics. The platform is entirely free to use, and Sallie Mae’s privacy policy ensures that personal data will not be shared with non-affiliates for marketing purposes. Users can also choose to limit the sharing of information with Sallie Mae’s affiliates.

The only step that is required to access the database is to register and create a short profile, which is then used to match students with relevant scholarship opportunities. After the registration process, students are taken directly to the scholarship search database, without being presented with any additional offers or having to go through unnecessary steps.

The Sallie Mae site is thoroughly modern and professional, with a clear, user-friendly design that is very easy to navigate around. Registered users can continually return to the platform to search for new scholarships, without ever having to re-enter their information, although they have the option to update and change their profile whenever they want. The Sallie Mae website does not contain any ads, and this provides a clear and distraction-free user experience, with the focus being entirely on finding the most relevant scholarships.

Because it is essentially a search database, the Sallie Mae platform does not allow students to use the same application information for multiple scholarships. Instead, students are directed to the websites of the organizations that actually administer and award these scholarships.

This means that students will have to complete a new application for each scholarship, which typically involves filling out their personal information and writing at least one essay. Unfortunately, scholarship panels will only see the applications submitted to their organization’s own website or email address; they won’t see the detailed profiles that students create on Sallie Mae.

Peterson’s Scholarship Search (73/100)

Updated: December 27, 2019

Peterson’s is perhaps best known as a publisher of educational materials, including test prep books and guides to colleges, financial aid, and careers.

Besides their print and online publications, they also offer a modern, easy-to-use scholarship search tool, which scored 73 out of 100 across our metrics. This can be accessed without having to create a profile, which may be a plus for students who prefer to search for scholarships by keywords. The search results can be filtered by award amount, major, state of residence, gender, and more.

There are also grants, prizes, fellowships, and forgivable loans listed. In addition to its scholarship search tool, Peterson’s offers numerous resources for students who are in the process of choosing a college, as well as those planning to attend grad school.

Peterson’s scored very highly for their total pool of funding, which is $10 billion, spread across nearly 2 million scholarships from over 4,000 scholarship providers. However, nearly all of these opportunities can also be accessed through other platforms such as Sallie Mae or Chegg.

Peterson’s does offer a $2,500 “World’s Easiest Scholarship,” although that seems to be the only unique opportunity on the database. Students can create a profile in order to save scholarships and colleges to a favorites list, although this doesn’t actually help them find scholarship matches or complete scholarship applications.

The scholarship search tool is entirely free to use, although the Peterson’s website contains many additional test prep resources that can be purchased. Students are likely to see targeted ads on the Peterson’s website, and it appears that the information collected by Peterson’s may be shared with third parties and other advertisers.

Bold.org (93/100)

Updated: November 5, 2020

BEST CHANCES OF WINNING

Ranks #1

Score: 93/100

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Pros:

Scholarships are exclusive to the platform, so your chances of winning are higher.
Protects your data. No ads or unrelated offers.
Student profile to showcase to scholarship panels.
Streamlined applications on the platform.

Cons:

Smaller than large scholarship databases.
Creating a great profile takes ~15 minutes.

Although Bold.org is smaller than other platforms here, it provides you the best chance of winning. It offers a robust student profile to ensure you look great for scholarship panels, and it provides funding exclusive to the platform, which means lower competition.

Bold.org ranked first on our list of the best scholarship platforms, with a total score of 93 out of 100. Bold is a brand-new platform that takes a radically different approach to the scholarship search and application process.

Rather than just providing a list of the various scholarship opportunities that are available on other websites, Bold differentiates itself in 3 ways:

Bringing exclusive scholarship opportunities that can’t be found anywhere else to students.
Allowing students to apply directly on the platform.
Helping students to create profiles to showcase their experience to scholarship panels.

Combining these factors, while Bold is not among the larger sites, by managing everything in-house, Bold.org provides students the highest likelihood of winning scholarships.

Bold also simplifies and streamlines the application process. Similar to other platforms, including Sallie Mae’s Scholarship Search, students create a profile on Bold, but then can also actually apply to opportunities directly through the Bold website, rather than having to create an entirely new application to fulfill the unique requirements of each awarding organization.

This common-sense approach can save students a significant amount of time and energy. Although most of the opportunities on Bold.org require a scholarship-specific essay of 500-1000 words, that is the only additional portion of the application; the rest of the applicant’s Bold profile is already saved and ready to be shared with the scholarship panel.

Creating a profile on Bold.org is a fairly lengthy process, at least compared to some of the other platforms we analyzed. Students need to answer a series of questions about their academic interests, career aspirations, employment experience, hobbies, sports, financial resources, and more.

However, while the initial onboarding takes time, students are rewarded with an impressive profile that showcases their full achievements well for scholarship panels.

Thus, it’s important for students to craft an excellent profile that expresses who they are and encapsulates their interests and aspirations. Rather than having to repeat any information, students benefit from having a single, comprehensively-detailed Bold profile that they can continually edit and improve and which will be shared across all of their applications. Additionally, students can earn “Bold Points” for completing all of the sections of their Bold profile, which gives them access to further scholarship opportunities.

Having been launched as recently as 2019, the Bold brand feels entirely modern and relevant, with an understanding of the challenges faced by today’s college applicants. Bold’s user interface works seamlessly and the platform earned high ratings for clarity, ease of navigation, and user-friendly design.

There are many very specific scholarships on Bold that are aimed at individuals of diverse backgrounds, educational experience, and interests. This nearly always increases a student’s chances of submitting a successful application, as there will be fewer overall applicants who meet the criteria for that scholarship. High school students, current undergraduates and graduate students, and prospective medical students will all be able to find opportunities on Bold.

Furthermore, all of these scholarship opportunities are unique to Bold, so students won’t find them on other platforms, which increases their likelihood of winning. Students who have created a Bold profile will be automatically notified whenever there is a new scholarship match — and this happens regularly, as the list of scholarships is constantly being updated.

Another factor that sets Bold.org apart from many other platforms is its commitment to protecting users’ privacy and personal data.

Student data on Bold is never shared with other users, affiliates, or third parties. There are no fees at all on Bold, nor will users ever receive any marketing communications. The only emails that Bold sends to its users are updates about new scholarship matches with approaching deadlines.

And because the sole focus of Bold is to provide access to scholarship opportunities, users never see advertisements or offers for any other products or services. For example, unlike Sallie Mae, which provides a detailed list of scholarships but is also in the business of arranging private student loans, Bold was established specifically to make it easier for students to find unique scholarship opportunities and for individuals and organizations to create those opportunities.

Cappex (72/100)

Updated: December 27, 2019

Cappex is another well-established scholarship search engine, and it has an extensive database with links to over $11 billion in total funding.

The registration process is fairly straightforward, allowing students to find relevant opportunities by expanding their profiles. However, although the Cappex site is modern and user friendly, it does contain numerous banner advertisements and frequent mentions of completely unrelated commercial products and services.

Cappex also requires users to click through a number of steps in which universities attempt to attract students’ attention before they can access the full scholarship list. Even then, the first “featured” scholarships on the list are clearly being promoted by paid advertising.

Cappex has hundreds of scholarships from legitimate organizations and companies, but this extensive amount of advertising detracts from the trustworthiness of the platform and makes it seem as if students’ personal data is likely to be shared with various universities, loan providers, and marketing companies.

Students can benefit from detailed information about various colleges and universities on the Cappex platform, which may be helpful for students who are still researching their choices. They can view college-specific funding opportunities, as well, including scholarships aimed at students who are currently attending those institutions. There is also extensive information about different majors and some helpful articles on a variety of topics.

Alongside each scholarship, Cappex provides some useful icons to quickly inform students about the likely competition for each award, and how long it will probably take to apply. Scholarships can be filtered by amount, name, and deadline, and it’s easy for students to sort them into categories like “Might Apply,” “Won,” and “Will Not Apply.”

Cappex does appear to have some of its own exclusive scholarships, but as they are all “no essay,” one-click applications, it is hard to judge whether they are legitimate opportunities or not. As with Fastweb, it can be distracting to see that many fellowships, volunteer programs, and other awards are also listed on the Cappex database, interspersed among the scholarships.

And as is the case with many platforms, students will have to follow links to scholarship websites and complete the requirements and essays listed there, rather than having the Cappex profile they created shared with multiple scholarship panels.

Fastweb (71/100)

Updated: December 27, 2019

Fastweb is one of the best known scholarship search websites, and it earned a solid score of 71 out of 100.

Founded in 1995, Fastweb prides itself on being the original college scholarship search website. With decades of experience, Fastweb is a well-respected search engine that has certainly adapted with the times. Currently, Fastweb’s database contains some 1.5 million scholarships, worth more than $3.4 billion, featuring regularly updated opportunities with a wide range of deadlines.

Fastweb is particularly proud of the strict vetting process that all of its scholarships go through, and it has a team of researchers dedicated to looking out for new opportunities and avoiding scams.

Like most other scholarship platforms, students use Fastweb by creating a profile. High school students, current undergraduates, and current graduate students can all use Fastweb, as there are scholarships both for prospective college students and those in the midst of their university education.

The more detailed the profile — in terms of filling in grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, employment history, family information, skills, and interests — the better Fastweb is able to match students with relevant scholarships. Additionally, Fastweb’s database includes numerous internships and part-time jobs, and they also have quick links to lists of scholarships for African-American students, bilingual students, veterans, current college freshmen, and more.

Although Fastweb dates back to 1995, its user interface is very 2019. Registering is a simple, streamlined process, and it allows students to decide how much or how little communication they want to receive. Specifically, they can choose whether they want to be notified by email about upcoming scholarship deadlines, new scholarship matches, and part-time jobs and internships, or if they want to receive Fastweb’s newsletter.

Fastweb makes an effort to ensure that students do not receive unwanted marketing communications; when registering, students can easily opt out of receiving mail from colleges, universities, internships, and loan providers. However, users often have to skip through “special offers” from Fastweb’s partners when they log on to the site, and they also encounter banner ads from other companies that have purchased advertising space on Fastweb.

Ads even appear embedded in the list of matched scholarships. This can be distracting and can sometimes feel like an invasion of privacy when those ads are clearly related to the personal information disclosed in one’s Fastweb profile.

Although Fastweb undoubtedly lists many excellent scholarships, they do not appear to have any unique funding that can’t be found anywhere else. Additionally, although scholarship matches can be filtered in terms of deadline, funding amount, location, college, and major, it can be somewhat confusing to see internships, fellowships, and volunteer opportunities also listed among the scholarships.

As Fastweb is essentially a scholarship clearinghouse, students can’t use their Fastweb profile as part of their application — it’s only purpose is to help them find matching scholarships. As with many of the other databases, students will have to follow the links to each scholarship’s website and complete all of the requirements there. No matter how impressive one’s Fastweb profile is, this won’t be seen by scholarship panels.