Most online scholarships are subsidised by government, however alternative scholarships for single parents are private scholarships and grants.
Private scholarships, aka outside awards, are provided by donors outside the University. These awards range from a few hundred dollars given by a local service club to several thousand dollars awarded by corporations. You can make enquiries locally within your community to find out which organisations have scholarships and what the criteria are. Your local college aid office can also direct you to sources for grants. Remember, once you have the scholarship, its important to send them a letter of gratitude and regularly inform them of your progress.
Reliable information about the number and amount of scholarships for single parents can be found in the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). This is a statistically representative survey of undergraduate and graduate students as conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the US Department of Education. FinAid also presents an analysis of the number of scholarships in the major scholarship databases, and reports the precision and recall of each database
Finaid vs. Fastweb
Information regarding private scholarships for single parents online can be traced to searching the www.finaid.org website. Visiting your library for this information is also an option. Finaid assists with everything from grants to graduate school fellowships and education tax benefits to tuition payment plans.
The administrative demands of applying for scholarships for single parents can be daunting, however the website also supplies forms, instructions and tips for filling out the mandatory FAFSA (Free application for Federal Student Aid) document. They have a list of FAQ’s and a glossary for answers with additional guidance from a module that provides aid through an advisor.
For tricky calculations, there are plenty of tools on the site for calculating college costs, loan payments, savings, and the expected family contribution (EFC). Additionally, there is information about testing, college admissions and jobs. Once you’ve identified the scholarships for which you are eligible, FinAid will offer suggestions on how to maximize your chances of winning a scholarship.
Purdue University for example compiles a variety of unique private scholarship opportunities and posts them on our website as Private Scholarship Announcements. When applying at Purdue for scholarships for single parents, students are required to report all private scholarships they expect to receive to the Division of Financial Aid. Private Scholarship Reporting can also be done online through your website account with Purdue University.
Whilst grant eligibility may differ, a scholarship/ fellowship usually demands students to have special qualifications, such as academic, athletic or artistic talent. Awards are also available for such students, interested in particular fields of study, members of underrepresented groups, live in certain areas of the country or demonstrate financial need.
There are several free scholarship databases available online – that’s more than 1.5 million scholarships worth over $3.4 billion, the FastWeb scholarship search is the largest, most accurate and most frequently updated database to search for scholarships for single parents. By entering your email address, they will notify you when new awards that match your profile are added to the database. You can even submit an electronic application to some of the scholarships listed in their FastWeb scholarship database.
Fastweb also offers;
- A two-page quick reference guide on winning a scholarship for the top twelve tips on winning a scholarship,
- common scholarship application mistakes; and
- a variety of top ten scholarship lists.
Their quick reference guide is based on the book Secrets to Winning a Scholarship, and they even offer a PowerPoint presentation with advice from the book.
Scams
When applying or searching for scholarships for single parents beware of scams. The rule of thumb is; ‘If you have to pay money to get money, it’s probably a scam.’.
Sadly, each year several hundred thousand students and parents are defrauded by scholarship scams. Victims of these scams lose more than $100 million annually. Operations often imitate legitimate government agencies, grant-giving foundations, education lenders and scholarship matching services. They will use official-sounding names containing the following words: “National,” “Federal,” “Foundation,” or “Administration.”
There is information available online for how to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent organizations and to protect yourself from scholarships for single parent scams as well as what to do if you are scammed.
Firstly, be wary of;
- scholarships with an application fee;
- scholarship matching services who guarantee success;
- advance-fee loan scams; and
- sales pitches disguised as financial aid “seminars”.
Fraudulent scholarships can take many forms so while searching for scholarships for single parents, if you receive an offer that uses one of these tactics be careful and if you believe the offer is a scam, report it. Sometimes a scam can go on for years before people catch on. Many of these scams encourage you to send them money up front and offer nothing in return, those who have been scammed don’t think much of it, other than that they didn’t land the scholarship.
Scams that appear to look like real scholarships for single parents or other like programs which require an application fee typically receives 5,000 to 10,000 applications at fees of $5 to $35. These scams can afford to pay out one or two $1,000 scholarships and still make a profit but your odds of winning one are very low, if not impossible.
The Advance-Fee Loan scam offer an unusually low-interest educational loan in exchange for a fee. Applicants of scholarships for single parents need to be extra careful considering their financial situations, so in this case, when you pay, nothing happens, whereas real educational loans deduct the fees from the disbursement check and never require an up-front fee when you submit the application. Bear in mind that when the loan is not issued by a bank or other recognized lender, it is probably a scam. Run this by your local bank manager if you must to be sure.
Be careful in your search for scholarships for single parents of The Scholarship Prize scam that tells you that you are the winner of a thousand dollars but asks for a “disbursement” or “redemption” fee or the taxes before they can release your prize. If you have won something you don’t remember entering this is a sure sign of a scam.
A similar one sends the cheque for the scholarship amount and asks for taxes and other fees in return or for the difference. The cheque bounces or is forged and the recipients’ funds have been stolen.
If you come across The Guaranteed Scholarship Search Service during your search for scholarships for single parents, be careful of guarantees to refund you when you have been ‘matched’. Investment Required for Federal Loans are similar to when insurance companies and brokerage firms sometimes offer free financial aid seminars that are actually sales pitches for insurance, annuity and investment products. When such a pitch implies that purchasing a product is a prerequisite to receiving federal student aid, it is a violation of federal regulations and state insurance laws. Also, be aware of Free Seminars or interviews offering financial assistance.
Websites to visit for scholarship research.
Scholarships for single parents options can also be found on the following websites aside FastWeb;
- College Board’s Fund Finder: A scholarship database listing scholarships and other types of financial aid programs from 3,300 national, state, public and private sources which is updated annually.
- Scholarships.com LLC: is a database with coverage of awards but some of the information may be dated.
- Peterson’s Award Database: Lists awards from about 2,000 sponsors with some irrelevant awards but otherwise fair coverage of available awards.
- NextStudent: Assists with a free for grants and scholarships for single parents, among other. It is based on the scholarship database formerly known as Scholarships101.
- ScholarshipExperts: Also a free online scholarship search and college search service. Their award listings include detailed information as well as a separate list of expired awards.
- CollegeData: Uses a licensed subset of the Peterson’s scholarship database owned by 1st Financial Bank USA, an education lender.
At a glance when looking for state and school financial aid programs and scholarships, also consider the following: