External Aid & Scholarships

This page will help you to understand the concept of external scholarships, and will introduce some options and resources for finding external scholarships. 

Your educational institution (college or university) isn’t the only place you can get scholarships from. Many other organizations, companies, and individuals offer scholarship funds. Some schools even have resources with tips and tricks on how to get external scholarships (they may use a few other terms for this type of aid such as “outside scholarships” or “external aid”). As an example, you can read Liberty University’s page on “Outside Scholarships” here. 

Here is an article from SoFi Learn on the topic of external scholarships and grants: SoFi Learn: A Guide to Unclaimed Scholarships and Grants

Scholarship Search Tools

Many tools exist to help you find scholarships you can apply for – some cost money, but may are free. Many legitimate companies offer lists of scholarships for sale. Some others might charge you to create a profile which they use to match you to scholarships listings they have in a database so that you can apply for them that way. There are also some scholarship search tools, which are often free. 

Consider these few free scholarship search tool examples to start:

Protect Yourself from Scams

There are many fake scholarships and grants which try to steal your information, your money, or even your identity. Be very careful and ensure that you are dealing with a legitimate offer. 

On its Outside Scholarships webpage, Liberty University lists a handful of signs of scholarship scams to watch for and avoid: 

• Money back guarantees or extra fees, as typically one should not have to pay to apply for a scholarship
• Guaranteed receipt of a scholarship or grant, since being awarded a scholarship is never guaranteed
• Requiring credit or bank account information
• Requiring personal information, such as a social security number
• Extremely high success rates or large amounts of hype
• Not providing the name or direct contact information of the actual institution offering the scholarship
• Excessive spelling, grammar, or formatting errors
• Scholarships from “Federal Agencies” that cannot be substantiated by that agency’s direct website
• No specific deadline or other important application information provided
• Contact and notification by phone with no email, address, or other forms of written documentation being exchanged
• Being awarded a scholarship when no application was submitted
• Inability of institution to provide any information of previous award history

The US Federal Trade Commission also provides the following article with lots of information on the topic: How to Avoid Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams.