Student Financial Services offers the following list of scholarship search sites and opportunities as a tool to help you pursue additional funding for your education. High School students should check with their counselor since they are considered a great resource. While most scholarships are offered to incoming freshmen who are beginning college, there are organizations that offer funds to upperclassmen or to graduate students as encouragement to pursue a degree that leads to a career in that field (for example, the large number of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics scholarships).  

Unlike applying for need-based university, state, or federal aid using just the FAFSA, finding and applying for scholarships requires much more time and effort on the part of the student. Based upon feedback from our students who've received outside scholarships, most take the approach of applying for as many scholarships as they could find. 

One of your best bets for finding potential scholarships is to spend time searching for opportunities that match your major, interests, activities, involvement, and biographic background. You’ll find that each organization’s application is different, and some are more involved than others. Filling out and submitting numerous applications takes time as well. This isn’t meant to discourage you from looking for outside scholarships; just be aware that this process requires patience and persistence. But if you’re fortunate, being selected for a scholarship, even a small one, represents a good return on your time invested.

As a reminder, legitimate scholarship organizations will never charge you an application fee. If a group wants to charge you money to apply for their scholarship (or to receive a list of potential scholarship opportunities), you're probably being scammed. Free Information about Scholarship Scams (Federal Trade Commission)

Students must notify Student Financial Services of any external funds they will receive in a given year, regardless of the amount, as these funds must be counted as a resource in meeting your educational costs and coordinated with your other sources of financial aid. Please submit information via the myHilltop task, Reporting External Funding (Student).