New Website for Scholarship Money for WA State Students

This helpful article was in the Seattle Times.

A new website run by a public/private partnership of nonprofits and the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) aims to help Washington scholarship-givers and scholarship-seekers find one another. The service is free.

The scholarship clearinghouse, theWashBoard.org, works like an online-matchmaking service such as eHarmony, said Mary Beth Lambert, spokeswoman for the Washington Scholarship Coalition. But instead of finding you a date, it finds you money for college.

The Washington Scholarship Association only allows registered nonprofits to list scholarships on the site, and interviews the nonprofit to make sure the scholarship is legitimate, Lambert said.

You log in and set up a profile so that your student's info will be matched with scholarships and you get an e-mail. They also give reminders as the deadlines loom. Also, it's not just for high school students but student already in college, both young and old.

I also found that this rang true:

Lambert said students on the hunt for college money are often inundated by marketers — including scam artists — who purport to find hidden scholarship money for a fee. At the same time, legitimate scholarships get left on the table because the organization offering the money doesn't have a budget to advertise, and the most qualified students don't apply.

It's amazing the number of scholarships that go begging because no one applies. Some of them aren't that big but the smaller ones can pay for books which are a huge cost (although now you can rent them or buy them used online).