For students struggling to find and apply for scholarships, there is a new website that hopes to help.
ScholarshipOwl is a scholarship-matching program that helps streamline the application process. The program claims to “take the hassle out of scholarship applications” by reducing it to a few steps and producing personalized results.
“Scholarship matching is one of our specialties,” states the company’s website. “We pair students with awards that suit their individual talents, passions and accomplishments. With the variety of awards we have to choose from, we’re able to find scholarships for just about everyone.”
While the two are not interchangeable, FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) may be slower than desired.
Karen Montalvo, a UTSA senior, explains why she is unhappy with FAFSA: “Really, it’s more time-consuming than anything else … the process itself does take a while.”
Time is of the essence for the busy university student. “It can be quite a pain to fill out. It’s something I dread each semester,” said Montalvo.
However, in early September President Obama announced plans to update the FAFSA, which will begin in in 2016, affecting the 2017 – 2018 school year. The application process will be simpler and begin earlier in the year, allowing students to file their forms as early as October 1. The President will also be calling on Congress to eliminate questions from the application to quicken the process.
“ScholarshipOwl can apply you to multiple scholarships easily and at once with one application,” the company website says. “Students are able to submit their information once without having to apply to each scholarship individually. It helps students save time and to focus on their studies.”
While the site is mostly for scholarship application and matching, it also offers students several other methods of help, such as tips and tutorials on how to write a scholarship essay.
The program continues to work on getting the name out to college students, because many students like Montalvo are unaware of its existence.
This program is free for high school, college, and graduate students for the first month, and if students wish to continue using the service, can choose between paying $29 monthly or $99 yearly for complete access to all scholarships the website provides.
