Happy Friday, dear Scholarship Seekers! I hope you enjoyed a relaxing and productive week after that long 4th of July weekend. The weather has been hot and steamy here — and so have the scholarship opportunities! As you know, I am committed to making your search for free money for college a little easier by posting every Friday (or every other Friday in the summer) about three great scholarships with upcoming deadlines. 1. OP Loftbed Scholarship Award: $500 The manufacturer of the #1 loftbed for college students, OP is sponsoring its annual $500 scholarship for full-time or part-time students enrolled at an accredited American college or university. Applicants must creatively answer a series of brief and fun essay questions: -If you knew you couldn’t fail at any one thin...

Hello dear scholarship seekers! Sunday was the official start of summer, but if your weather has been anything like mine, it’s been hot-hot-hot for a while. Looking to take a break from all the heat and humidity? Nothing better than an ice cold glass of… scholarship applications! That’s right, guys, school may be out, but that doesn’t mean your homework is done. If you have been slacking on your scholarship applications, you are the one who will lose out — on free money for school. If this is your first time visiting the Financial Aid Finder, welcome! Every Friday I try to make your hunt for scholarships a little bit easier by posting about great scholarship opportunities with upcoming deadlines. This week I have a $2,000 essay scholarship on free thought conce...

Well another week of summer vacation has come and gone, dear scholarship seekers. How many scholarship applications did you complete this week? Why not set a goal to apply for at least three scholarships each week?! The more you apply for, the more you will win. Of course, you can’t apply for scholarships that you don’t meet the minimum requirements for, so you will need to do some legwork. Check out our article on free scholarship search engines for the 411 on how to find legitimate — and free — sites to help with that legwork. And of course, I’m here to help! As you know, each Friday at the Financial Aid Finder, I post about three hot scholarship opportunities with upcoming deadlines. This week, I have $3,000 for students interested in pursuing a career i...

If you just finished your junior year of college, this is your last summer before you start heading off to college. While you may want to enjoy that time with a little (or a lot of) R&R, don’t kick back just yet. There are plenty of items for your college prep to-do list, including these five important tasks: 1. Narrow down your list Create of list of 8-12 colleges you are seriously considering applying to. While in today’s competitive college atmosphere, “safety schools” may be a thing of the past, it is important to have ‘safer’ and ‘bigger reach’ schools on your list. And while you may have your heart set on the athletics Big 10 school — or the ivy-covered buildings of small liberal arts college — don’t pigeon hole ...

If you’ve spent any time on this blog at all, you know I’m a huge proponent of using college scholarships to pay for your higher education. I encourage you every Friday with a list of three scholarships with upcoming deadlines. But in your eagerness to find free money for college, you must be careful not to fall prey to a scholarship scan. Here are five of the biggest scans you should steer clear of: 1. The Guaranteed Match So-called scholarship matching services will offer to ‘match’ you with the perfect list of scholarships that you are guaranteed to win. And they’ll charge you a hefty $50 or more for their service. Guess what? There is no such magical list. Finding the scholarships you qualify for is all about doing the legwork with free scholarship searc...

Hello scholarship seekers! Happy Summer Vacation! I think nearly all schools — high schools and colleges — have finally finished up their academic year. How did your finals go? Hopefully you have found a lucrative and meaningful way to spend your summer break, with a little R&R thrown in, too! Just don’t forget to leave time to work on some scholarship applications. Just because you are on summer break doesn’t mean the scholarship committees are. As you know, every week I aim to make your scholarship search a little easier by spotlighting three great scholarships with upcoming deadlines. This week, I’ve got the $15,000 Ronzoni Smart Taste Challenge, a $1000 essay competition from Abbott & Fenner and a gamut of $500 scholarships from the Star Trek fa...

Hello scholarship seekers! Can you believe it’s the last day of April? Where has the month gone?! Summer vacation is right around the corner, which means many scholarship committees are winding their way down. Don’t miss out on a chance to win free money to pay your fall tuition bill! As you know, every week I aim to make your scholarship search a little easier by spotlighting three great scholarships with upcoming deadlines. This week, I’ve got the Compassion and the Imprisoned Child essay contest, the Expat Youth Scholarship, and the Home Depot Trade Scholarship, which has a deadline of 11:59 PM EST TONIGHT!!! One of the great things about this week’s scholarships is that two out of the three of them are open to both Americans and non-Americans. So if you live ...

Hi there scholarship seekers! Did you miss me on Friday? Life has been a little nutty lately, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging for another whole week without some scholarship listings. And the truth is, there are some really awesome scholarship opportunities out there with upcoming deadlines. So, today, I’m going to tell you about three of them — and encourage you to apply to these and any others that you meet the qualifications for. After all, winning free money for college is a numbers game. The more scholarships you apply for, the better your chances are of winning some serious cash for school. UCB Epilepsy Scholarship: Amount Varies The UCB Family Epilepsy Scholarship Program is dedicated to providing financial support for the academic pursuits of people livin...

I recently got a letter from a reader named Natalie, who is worried about paying for college without any parental help. Are you financing your college degree solo? Read on for her letter and my suggestions for tackling this challenge. Dear Financial Aid Finder, Hi, I’m a high school senior with pretty good grades and a strong ACT test score. I want to go to college in the fall, but I have no idea how I’m going to pay for it. My parents don’t make very much as it is, plus neither of them went to college, so they aren’t terribly supportive of my wanting to go. In other words, I’m on my own. Other than applying for scholarships (my guidance counselor told me about a few), what else can I do? Thanks, Natalie in Minnesota Thanks for your letter, Natalie! I love hea...

TGIF! Before you shut off your computer and go enjoy some well-deserved down time, I’ve got three scholarships you might want to spend some time applying to. There are going to be a number of really great scholarships with upcoming deadlines over the next six to eight weeks, so now is definitely the time to buckle down on your applications. This week, I have three great gigs: a $5000 “STOP Hunger” scholarship sponsored by Sodexo (the #1 food service provider on college campuses today); a $1,000 scholarship/lottery from US Bank (there are 40 of these available, which means your odds are better than normal!); and a $1,000 Voices for Animals essay contest. 1. Sodexo Foundation STOP Hunger Scholarships: $5,000 The Sodexo Foundation’s $5,000 STOP Hunger Scholarships encou...