How to Find Unclaimed Scholarships

Unclaimed scholarships are funds that were available in a given year but nobody applied for or was deemed qualified for. Millions of dollars in aid goes unclaimed each year.

Some of these unclaimed scholarships are the result of extremely tight restrictions being put on the funds. For instance, there is a scholarship at Stanford University that is specifically for reformed prostitutes. That one goes unclaimed almost every year!

But there are many, many scholarships that ordinary people could qualify for, if only they applied. The trick is digging deep and finding them.

The best way to find scholarships is to sign up for a free national database of scholarships. You should never pay to access scholarship information and never pay to apply for a scholarship. Both of those services are scams.

But, when you sign up for access to the scholarship databases, you will first fill out a profile. This may ask you many questions that you consider odd. That is because the computer is trying to match you to these unusual scholarships which sometimes go unclaimed.

For instance, you will be asked your height. For a woman who is 5′4, that may seem like a strange question, but if she were 5′11, she would qualify for a scholarship from the Tall Clubs International. If she were 4′11, she would qualify for a scholarship from the National Association of Short Statured Adults.

Left handed people qualify for special scholarships too. Juanita College in Pennsylvania has a scholarship that only left handed people qualify for.

So, the first step in the process is to fill out the application and see what matches the computer can make for you.

The second step is to search out scholarships yourself using the search tools available.

But the most important step is actually filling out the applications. This can be a daunting task. But there have been people who have gone to the trouble to secure college scholarships who have ended up having everything – room, board, tuition, and books – paid for by a bunch of small scholarships. Putting the effort in can pay off in big ways.

Because there are thousands of dollars in unclaimed scholarships that roll over each year, it makes sense to go after this “low hanging fruit.” Fund your college education with scholarships that might otherwise have gone unclaimed.

Need money for college? Use FastWeb’s free scholarship search to find information on more than 600,000 scholarships!