In This Issue Scholarship Sources   The search for scholarships  Scholarship Information  Requesting scholarship information  Matching Students and Scholarships Matching scholarships with students Scholarship Criteria  The scholarship selection process The Scholarship Application Preparing the perfect application Scholarship Decisions Packaging your application for success Return to the Front Page Return to College Planning Network Home

Starting the Search for Scholarships There are three primary places to look for scholarship information. They are: The High School Counseling or Career Center. High school counselors receive year-round information on available scholarships. Most high schools have at least several dozen scholarships available exclusively to students from that specific high school or district. These may be some of the best scholarships as the pool of potential applicants is smaller than with regional or national awards. Usually, counselors produce regular bulletins as award information is received. Check with your counselor. It makes sense for parents and students to review this information before the junior year to begin identifying scholarships available in the junior or senior year. Public Libraries. Libraries also provide considerable scholarship information. Check with the reference librarian at libraries in your community. College Financial Aid Offices. Colleges are regularly sent private scholarship information. It is best to check with local colleges, even if you are not interested in attending that particular college. Since many scholarships are designated for students who live in a specific geographic area, it's best to check close to home.   Scholarships on the Internet Collecting information on private scholarships has never been easier than it is today. Many scholarship organizations have sites on the World Wide Web. It may be very rewarding to use one of several free scholarship search programs. The Pacific Northwest Scholarship Guide Online is a free scholarship search offered on College Planning Network's Web site. The scholarship search engine was designed as a gift for CPN by Microsoft. The 'Guide Online' uses the data from the latest edition of the Pacific Northwest Scholarship Guide and is updated regularly. It contains scholarships available to students from this region. Links to scholarship organization Web sites are noted, including online applications. The 'Guide Online' is the only local scholarship database for Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. Full instructions to use the 'Guide Online' are also on the Web site. Other scholarship search services are offered free on the Internet. The Web sites allow students and parents to enter student data and match characteristics with scholarships for which they are eligible. While these sites are free, you should be aware that many of the companies that operate scholarship searches are re-selling the student and family data for marketing and sales purposes. CPN's 'Guide Online' does not require a student/family profile in order to use scholarship search. College Planning Network offers direct links to these sites and other online resources via www.collegeplan.org, as well as offering full college planning information. Some for-profit scholarship searches still charge for access to their data. It makes little sense to use these fee-based searches. Everything they offer is available for free through the searches mentioned above. In addition many high schools and colleges provide these electronic searches free to students. If a fee is involved, the search should be avoided.