Let's take a moment to sit back and give thanks for the internet. Before the availability of scholarship search engines, students were required to scour scholarship listings one by one, looking for opportunities. Today, the job of seeking scholarships is still a great deal of work but still so much simpler than in the not-so-distant past. 
The best source of scholarship information is contained on the internet, through a variety of scholarship directory sites. We have described some of the most popular sites in this chapter.  Our advice is, go through the search process in four or five websites. Then, make a combined list of scholarships. (Be sure to note which engine identified each scholarship.) 
Scholarship Websites 
www.finaid.org      
This  is a great site with lots of information available as well as a search function  called FastWeb. FastWeb requires (free) registration and development of a   profile. The site offers a number of advantages such as a tracker that reminds   you when scholarships you are eligible for are due. The site also provides an   e-mail notification service when jobs come up in your local area.    
The  major drawback of this site is the level of commercialism associated with  navigation. When you click on a scholarship offering, you frequently go to a  window that offers some sort of deal. You must click through the advertisement  to get to the information you are seeking. The scholarship search results also  contain advertising-like offers interspersed with scholarships. We didn't find  the commercial aspect distracting enough to make the site not useful. One of the  interesting scholarships we were matched with at FastWeb is The Presidential  Freedom Award. Two students from every high school on the country can be awarded  $1,000 ($500 from the scholarship fund, $500 must be matched by the school or  through the school's fundraising efforts). The primary eligibility criterion  is 100 hours of community service.  It's worth finding out if your school  knows about this scholarship. It may not be hard for them to find a community  match for the $500 and $1,000 can pay for a semester of books.      
www.petersons.com  
The  Peterson site is sponsored by Thomson Publications, a major publisher of  educational materials. There is a strong grants search engine that you must  register (for free) to use. They  were not all possibilities but in each case, it was reasonably clear why the  scholarship was on the list.    
Our  personal favorite scholarship from this search is one titled, "Stuck at the  Prom" sponsored by the Duck Brand duct tape company. The contest is open to  residents of the United States and Canada. You must be 14 years or older and  attend a high school prom in the spring. Participants must adorn themselves in  stylishly "sticky" fashions made from duct tape. You must enter as a  couple. There are three awards available, ranging from $500 to $2,500.      
  www.ducktapeclub.com      
This  very popular website has a strong search engine that contains an excellent  representation of scholarships. However, one of the best reasons to use this  site is the tremendous amount of resource information written by the site  founder, Laura DiFiore. Ms. DiFiore has had a lot of experience as a judge and  she provides marvelous insight into the process.       
www.ja.org      
Sponsored  by the Junior Achievement organization. This site's search engine boast a  database of more than 8,000 private scholarship programs that offers over $35  million from more than 150,000 scholarship awards. However, we found the profile  complicated to use (everything requires a code that has to be looked up) and  found that the scholarship info was sparse, requiring a trip to the scholarship  website before making a preliminary decision about appropriateness.     
www.scholarships.com   
This  interesting site offers a free search after registration and profile  development. The search results include an indication of the value of the  scholarship, maximum awarded, due date and relevance to your situation as well  as a way to select offerings that are placed in a "my scholarships" folder.       
  Our profile matched with a "Got Milk?" scholarship of $7,500 sponsored by The   National Dairy Council.  The scholarship is based on athletic excellence   (35%); Academic Achievement (35%); Leadership (15%); Citizenship/Community   Service (10%), and the "Milk Experience" essay submitted with the original   online application (5%).    
The  essay contest question is:   
Read  the linked New  York Times Magazine article written by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  Develop an argument that rejects OR defends the claims the authors make about  sweatshops. Your essay--which should be longer than 600 words, but no more than  2500 words--may touch on any the themes the authors raise in the article. Your  essay may also address any other examples/relevant issues or ideas that you  think the authors have neglected. First Prize: $5,000, Second Prize: $2,500,  Third Prize: $1,500, Honorable Mention: Four prizes of $250 each. Prizes  will be awarded for the best essays as judged by staff members at  aWorldConnected.org and our distinguished  panel of judges.     
www.princetonreview.com    
This  site, sponsored by The Princeton Review, provides a free search engine  (registration and profile required). Our test returned the highest number of  responses, 383, to our student profile but many turned out to be non-relevant  and it was unclear how our profile had been matched to them. This site also  offers a personal folder that includes a number of organizing tools as well as a  registration service that matches you to schools.    
Written  Resources      
Scholarship  Directories      
There  are many excellent compendiums of scholarship information available in  bookstores. You may not be inclined to purchase one of these books, preferring  to conduct your search on-line, but we suggest that you either purchase a good,  comprehensive resource or locate a resource in your school or local library that  you can use. Why? Even though search engines are excellent, they are inherently  limited by the search words that are used. There's great value in  systematically or even casually looking through printed listings for  scholarships that the search engines might not have picked up on your behalf.       
Guidance  Office Postings      
Your  high school guidance office will get dozens of postings for scholarships  throughout the year. They will be posted on a bulletin board or available in a  binder in the office. This is a great place to look for local scholarships that  may not have been picked up by the major directories.      
Local  Newspapers      
Search  your local newspapers archives for scholarship announcements and awards.     
Web  Search Engines      
Use  your personal assessment form as a guide to doing internet searches, such as  "chess and scholarships".      
Warning!  Finding Opportunities is Time Consuming!      
Plan  to spend at least 50-60 hours searching the web, entering profiles into  databases, reading scholarship directories and searching newspaper archives.  There's really no way around this time commitment. Each of these sources of  scholarships is very good but if you want to be comprehensive, uses many  techniques for identifying scholarships.