Outside Scholarships & Fellowships

Scholarship Universe connects students to internal and external scholarships.

Protect Yourself!

Beware of sites that collect your data and market/sell that data. There are many scholarship and search sites that their main business is selling of the data you provide. Ask yourself how this sites stays in business. Never provide your social security number or pay for these sites. Marketers can make anywhere from $25-$35 per student selling your data. Then you are left fielding sales phone calls for years with the associated e-mails and junk mail.
Read privacy policies — The only way you will know how a company and/or website uses information is to read their privacy policy. In the policy find language that explains what information will be collected, how it will be used, will it be shared, and how long will it be kept. When they share data with their “sponsor,” is that a media marketing company who sells your data?
Prior to 2010 and the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act, credit card companies were major purchasers of personal information lists. The CARD Act restricted the marketing of credit cards to college students. Without credit card companies as buyers, scholarship search engines now rely primarily on advertisers and universities to buy lists of student information. Advertisers resell the information to product companies to tailor online and email marketing, as a result your student receives “special offers” from a variety of companies.
Universities buy student lists from scholarship search engines in order to learn more about students who are currently applying to college. Colleges use the information on lists to send students marketing materials that make it seem like the student has been personally invited to apply to an exclusive track or program at the school. As college admittance becomes more competitive, universities are doing whatever it takes to make themselves desirable destinations for secondary education.
Opt-Out — “sharing” of information is really the sale of personal data.
Use scholarship search engines and apps that don’t require logins.
Stick to local resources — like your school guidance department and local scholarships. Avoid using scholarship search engines by focusing on local scholarships instead. Students have a better chance of winning local scholarships than larger national ones.