Is Your New Year’s Resolution to Find More Scholarships? Don’t Worry, We Have Advice for You.

Scholarships are a tremendous asset for students in their financial aid packages. As a form of gift aid, scholarships defray the cost of a higher education and do not require repayment. Since scholarships can significantly reduce the burden of attending college, it’s a natural question for students to ask where they can find additional scholarship resources. To help you start 2026 on the right path, this article devotes its energy to providing you with sound guidance in your search for extra scholarships.

When reviewing scholarship opportunities, it’s important to remember that many scholarships have a criteria component that a qualified applicant must meet before receiving any awarding consideration. What are some examples of eligibility requirements a student may need to meet to apply for a scholarship successfully? Here’s an abridged list of eligibility requirements that you may encounter during the application process:

• State residency requirements
• Affiliation with a religious or civic organization
• Extracurricular activities, such as participation in sports or community service
• Academic program information
• Display of financial need
• Achievements in an array of endeavors, such as sports, academic, or artistic expression
• Letters of recommendation from a trusted person

While this list is not exhaustive, it’s a good starting point when reviewing scholarship opportunities that pique your interest.

Since the advent of the World Wide Web nearly thirty years ago, applying for scholarships has become less onerous. Ask anyone over forty years old about their scholarship searches in the 1970s or 1980s. It was not pretty. With that said, the internet is a good starting point for your scholarship search journey.

The College’s scholarship webpage offers a plethora of resources regarding scholarships affiliated with the College. It’s important to note that not all scholarships are available at any given time. Additionally, you may have already received the maximum scholarship amount from the College. In that case, you may want to apply for additional scholarship assistance. Please note that the Financial Aid Office places a heavy emphasis on assisting students who have a legitimate financial need.

At the bottom of the College’s scholarship webpage are links to external scholarship opportunities unaffiliated with the College. The listed scholarship entities are credible third-party organizations, primarily non-profits. Two of the largest scholarship organizations available to students are Fastweb and Appily. Fastweb is the OG of an internet scholarship research service. Founded in 1995 by internet pioneer and venerable businessman Larry Organ, Fastweb bridges the scholarship search gap for frustrated students and organizations eager to award their precious funding. Fastweb is an acronym for Financial Aid Search through the Web. Cue the more you know rainbow in your head.

Appily is the rebranded website of the formerly well-known Cappex website. Also an OG of the internet scholarship research services, Appily offers a variety of scholarship resources to interested students on its website.

Are you a Delawarean? If yes, then check out the Delaware Student Success Scholarship Compendium. This resource offers Delaware high school and college students with local scholarships to support their post-secondary educational needs. The website features an interactive search tool to help applicants find scholarships that best meet their abilities, needs, and interests. Many of the scholarships listed in this compendium have strict application deadlines. Stay abreast of upcoming deadlines to avoid losing out on a life-changing scholarship.

Scholarship America is a non-profit organization that helps students search for and apply for scholarships. As a safe and trusted resource for students, Scholarship America removes the daunting barriers of scholarship research. Its website is also easy to navigate. The non-profit proudly displays a wide range of corporate sponsors on its main webpage.

CollegeScholarships.org is another excellent resource for students seeking additional scholarship information. Although the website is not as easy to navigate as the ones outlined above, it’s still a worthwhile experience due to the filter features in the search process. Students can filter by school level, award amount, and geographic region to find scholarships that align with their interests. With an index of over 700 webpages, this scholarship resource engine should be at the forefront of your scholarship search journey.

Returning to our local roots in Delaware, the Fresh Start Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women achieve their educational goals. Founded in 1996 by Mary E. Maloney, the Fresh Start Foundation annually awards scholarships to women who share a vision of supporting other women in need of a “fresh start” in their educational pursuits. In 2009, the Fresh Start Organization established an endowment fund at the Delaware Community Foundation to ensure long-term financial sustainability.

The Fresh Start Foundation’s scholarship webpage poses a simple question: Do you have a dream to transform your life? With that question as the underlying theme for the scholarship, the official eligibility criteria follow suit. To apply, females must be Delaware residents, at least 20 years old, and have had a two-year gap in their education. Additional requirements for scholarship consideration apply; therefore, the Financial Aid Office encourages interested students to visit the foundation’s website for more information.

Sallie Mae, one of the largest private student loan servicers in the country, offers a “Bridging the Dream” scholarship program for high school seniors and college students. According to Sallie Mae’s scholarship webpage, the scholarship program is in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. The webpage proudly displays the most recent award year recipients of this prestigious scholarship fund. Scholarship funding begins in early spring, so keep an eye out for this dynamic scholarship opportunity.

As highlighted in a newsletter article a few months ago by another contributor to Other Voices, Gigi Gaul, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) is another local scholarship organization dedicated to providing New Castle County women with opportunities to fund their educational endeavors. To be eligible for a scholarship, an applicant should meet the following criteria:

• Be a female resident of the State of Delaware;
• New Castle County, DE, high school seniors (including homeschoolers) or an adult female who has been away from school for a period and now plans to attend college.

Other application requirements include a completed 2026-27 FAFSA form, an official school transcript, letters of recommendation, and financial details of the applicant and parents to establish financial need. The organization’s selection criteria comprise four distinct areas:

• Scholastic standing;
• Financial need;
• Letters of recommendation; and
• Results of standardized testing.

The award amount varies and can range up to $10,000, per the organization’s official scholarship webpage on the Delaware Student Success.org compendium website.

International students often feel neglected when searching for external scholarship opportunities, as many of the ones listed in this article so far are domestic-based. Well, I have some good news. There’s a website dedicated to international students’ quest for additional scholarship funding and aptly titled International Scholarships.com. This free resource offers a diverse array of scholarship opportunities specifically designed for international students. Restrictions may apply to some of the listed scholarships, so it’s essential to carefully consider the application criteria before submitting your application.

Are you enrolled in a Rize program at Goldey-Beacom College? If so, you may be eligible for a scholarship exclusively from the Rize organization. Sharing your story on how the skills you have attained as a student in the Rize program can potentially net you a $1,000 scholarship. Whether it’s the dream internship you landed or a side project that’s advancing your adventurous career ambitions, any story that relates to the primary prompt qualifies you to apply for this scholarship. To learn more about this unique scholarship opportunity, please visit the Rize organization’s scholarship webpage.

As you can see, this article provides just the tip of the scholarship iceberg. A quick internet search on your favorite search platform will likely yield additional scholarship resources not listed in this article. If you ever have any questions regarding the veracity of a scholarship organization, do not hesitate to contact the Financial Aid Office. As always, good luck with your scholarship search. May the odds ever be in your favor.