Local before national: where students have the best chance

Families usually start a scholarship search with the biggest names they have heard of. Those awards are real and worth trying for, but every strong student in the country can apply. The awards closest to home are the ones most families skip, and they are often the easier ones to win.

Why local awards are different

A local scholarship limits who can apply: one county, one high school, one employer's families, one church or civic club. Fewer eligible students means a smaller pile of applications for the committee to read. The amounts are often smaller too, but several small awards add up, and many can be combined.

Where to look

• Your school counselor's list. Ask which awards last year's seniors won.
• The community foundation for your city or county. Many run dozens of funds through one application.
• Employers of both parents and of the student, and any union or professional association the family belongs to.
• Credit unions, electric cooperatives, civic clubs, churches and alumni chapters.
• The financial aid page of each college on the student's list. A college's own scholarships are usually the largest money a student will see.

How to work the list

Sort by deadline, then by how much work each one takes. Do the local awards first, then the state ones, then the national ones. Write one strong personal essay and adapt it. A student who sends two or three careful applications a week through senior year will have applied to far more awards than most classmates.

What this site does about it

We label each listing by where it applies, so you can filter to your state. Local awards are the hardest to collect, because many never reach a national database. If you know of a real one in your community, send it to us and we will check it against the sponsor's page before we list it.