1.

With more than 700,000 scholarships available from

over 25,000 providers annually, a careful
2. planning is crucial to winning some. The good time to
start is in a student’s second or third year
3. of a high school – scholarship deadlines are generally in
the spring of the junior and senior years.
4. High school guidance counselors can point students and
their families to the right direction; they
5. can recommend scholarships offered by special colleges
or community groups and discuss
6. qualification. Other sources to check include employers,
trade organizations and labor unions.

7. Perhaps the best scholarship resource is Internet. Web

sites specializing in scholarships and
8. college financial aid have proliferated in recent years,
and many are free to users. One of the most
9. popular free service is Scholarships.com, which
matches students with scholarships, grants,
10. fellowships and internships of an extensive database.
Lawrence Gerber, the president of
11. Scholarships.com, says it has been receiving 15,000
visitors a day, in average, up from 7,500 at
12. this time last year. The other source is FastWeb.com.
Tom Lubin, president of FastWeb, said the
13. site dose not have to charge fees for its service
because it makes money by selling registered users’
information to marketing partners.

14. In addition, there are pay sites like

ScholarshipExperts.com, which charge annual fees
starting at
15. $29.95. It says it owns a database of more than two
million scholarships totaled nearly $14 billion.
16. The service was founded in January 2001 by Ali Azhar,
24, of Jacksonville, Fla., who paid his own
17. college education with scholarship based in a
relentless two-year search in public libraries. Mr.
18. Azhar says he has no way to determine the number of
scholarships his clients receive. Mark
19. Kantrowitz, the publisher of FinAid.com, an information
Web site owned by FastWeb, says 6
20. percent of FastWeb users get scholarships through the
sites, based on a 2000 study.

21. As they search the Internet, students and families

should be wary. Each year, many people fall prey
22. to scholarship fraud, most of it online. The Federal
Trade Commission warns consumers to alert for
23. companies that make guarantee ask for money or
credit card account numbers in order to “hold a
24. scholarship” or have promised to do all the work. The
F.T.C says that since 1996 it has sued nine
25. companies accusing them for bilking consumers of
more than $20 million by making false claims.
26. The agency posts a list of defendants and settlement
on its Web site. www.ftc.gov.

27. The legitimate online services maintain that they

provide users a list of only those programs for
28. which they potentially qualify. This filter is time saver,
because many private-sector funds are
29. designated for members of particular groups or for
students who meet with any other criteria based
30. on financial needs or merit. The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, for example, set up a $1 billion
31. program in 1999 to send 20,000 low-income students
to colleges over 20 years. The fund, though,
32. is restricted with students who are African-American,
Native American, Alaskan native, Asian
33. Pacific islander or Hispanic. Another example of a
restricted scholarship is one of the King Faisal
34. Foundation, sponsored by the Saudi Arabian
monarchy, which offers generous grants which cover
35. the full cost of a college education, a travelling budget
and a $400 monthly stipend. Only “good Muslims of good
character” need apply.

36. Many scholarship funds have sprung up to help victims

of the criminal and terrorist attacks, and
37. they also have restrictions. The W. M. Keck Foundation
Scholarship, being administrated by the
38. United Negro College Fund, was set up for students
who were indirectly affected. Students must
39. attend private, historical black colleges and
universities. A recent recipient was Kimberly Usher, a
40. freshman at Dillard University in New Orleans, who
was rewarded $12,500 in scholarship money
41. last month. She was accepted two weeks after writing
a required essay and completing the
42. paperwork. About 7 percents of undergraduate
students receive private-sector money, according to
43. the National Center for Educational Statistics. Most
awards, though, are not as large as Ms. Usher;
44. the average is $2,000. With tuition at many colleges in
the tens of thousands of dollars, and is rising
45. faster than the rate of inflation, that $2,000 on
average may seem like a drop in the bucket. It is not
46. true for all. More ambitious student can go after more
than just one scholarship.