Free Scholarships Blog

We are just two days away from the start of our annual Scholarship Idol video contest. Have you started filming your video yet? If not, what are you waiting for! Here is some important stuff you need to know about the contest to help get you started:

What should my video be about?

Your video should be a creative performance that promotes ScholarshipPoints.com in 60 seconds of less. You can write a song, choreograph a dance, act out a funny skit, or anything else you can think of. You can get your friends involved, or you can act alone. Whatever you do make sure it is 100% original work!

When do I enter?

Here are the contest dates:

• 2/1/2012 – 2/21/2012: Contest entries accepted
• 2/22/2012: Top-10 videos selected; five with the most YouTube likes and five by the ScholarshipPoints team
• 2/22/2012 – 3/6/2012: Voting
• 3/7/2012: Winners announced!

What can I win?

This year we have three scholarship awards for the winners of Scholarship Idol:

• First prize: $2,000 scholarship
• Second prize: $1,000 scholarship
• Third prize: $500 scholarship

Any other questions about let contest? Let us know by leaving a comment on this post. You can also email members@scholarshippoints.com. Good luck!

Last night we had another great #ScholarshipChat! The topic was “Scholarship Applications: Paying Attention to Details”. We talked about everything from proofreading your scholarship essays to creating “fake” deadlines for yourself so you never forget to submit an application on time.

Here is what you missed:

If you were not able to join us last night, the next #ScholarshipChat will be on Monday, February 6th at 9:00pm ET. Stay tuned for an announcement of what the topic will be. If you have any suggestions of topics you would like brought up leave a comment with your suggestion!

The New England Patriots and the New York Giants will be battling in the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 5th. Do you have a favorite team in this match-up? Do you think YOU can pick the winner?

Enter our Pick the Super Bowl Winner Facebook Contest for a chance to win a $500 scholarship!

To enter, submit your pick (Patriots or Giants) as a post on our Facebook wall by the time the game starts on Sunday, February 5th at 6:00pm ET. One member who picks the winning team will be randomly selected to win a $500 scholarship!

The winner will be announced on February 6th!

You have been waiting for it all year and now it is almost time for Scholarship Idol 2012. This year the contest will be bigger and better than ever! We are looking for members to submit a 60 second or less creative promotional video for ScholarshipPoints.com.  You can do pretty much anything you can think of to promote ScholarshipPoints.com, but the videos must be your own original work.

The video submission period will start on February 1st and go until February 21st. Everyone who submits a video will receive 250 points just for entering! On February 22nd the top 10 videos will be moved onto ScholarshipPoints.com for the voting period. This year the top 10 videos are being selected two different ways. Five of the top 10 will be chosen because they have the most YouTube likes. The other five of the top 10 will be chosen by the ScholarshipPoints team for their originality, creativity, and video production skills. This means that you want to get all of your friends and family to check out your video and Like it on YouTube, but you also want to make sure you put some serious time and effort into creating an amazing video!

Members will have the chance to vote for their favorite video once a day from February 22nd until March 6th. The winners will then be announced on March 7th!  Here is what the winners will receive:

First place: A $2,000 scholarship award

Second place: A $1,000 scholarship award

Third place: A $500 scholarship award

So start preparing your video now so it is ready to submit on February 1st! Good luck and may the most creative video win!

Hi everyone! Just stopping by to announce the next #ScholarshipChat! On Monday, January 23rd at 9:00pm ET we will be chatting about “Scholarship Applications: Paying Attention to Details”. We will have some great tips about what to pay close attention to when filling out scholarship applications and red flags that will make a scholarship committee dismiss your application.

As always you can follow along using TweetChat to make participating in the chat even easier. If you login to TweetChat with your Twitter account and follow the hashtag #ScholarshipChat you will be automatically see updates and be included in the chat every time you tweet.

Chat with you soon!

Students from Howard University and Loyola University Chicago among recent ScholarshipPoints scholarship winners.

QUINCY, MA (January 18, 2011) – ScholarshipPoints.com, an Edvisors online education company, awarded $8,000 on January 3rd to students from California State University at Long Beach, Clayton State University, Houston Community College, Howard University, Saint Johns University, University of Alabama, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, San Diego State University and Loyola University Chicago. Through their free scholarships program, ScholarshipPoints helps students of all ages achieve their dreams of a college education. In 2011 ScholarshipPoints gave away nearly $130,000 in scholarships. To ensure funds are used for educational purposes, awards are sent directly to the student’s financial aid office.

Winner Fanee Johnson, a sophomore nursing major from Clayton State University, was one of the January 3rd scholarship winners. “This scholarship will assist me with paying for summer school which will get me one step closer to reaching my goal,” said Fanee. “Thank you ScholarshipPoints for this scholarship. I am forever grateful!”

ScholarshipPoints is committed to helping students alleviate some of the financial burden associated with higher education. Students who join the program have the opportunity to complete activities in order to earn points. Each point equals one entry into a scholarship drawing. The more points a member enters into a drawing, the greater their chances are of winning. In addition to giving away scholarship money, ScholarshipPoints also educates students on a variety of higher education topics and connects them to third party scholarship offers and alternative financial aid options.

ScholarshipPoints awards multiple monthly scholarships worth up to $10,000. To learn more or to enter the next $10,000 scholarship drawing, visit www.ScholarshipPoints.com.

We are currently in the process of building an amazing new scholarship search website and we need your help! Submit a topical scholarship list and earn points. Here’s how:

Step 1: Find 6 to 10 scholarships that fit into one of the following categories:

• Left handed scholarships
• Full ride scholarships
• International scholarships
• Scholarships for first generation college students
• Scholarships for vegetarians
• Scholarships for animal lovers
• Scholarships for black women

Step 2: Write a 250 word paragraph describing your list of scholarships, what the topic means to you, who the scholarships would be good for, and why you chose them.

Step 3: Find a great picture of yourself to submit with your list.

Send your list, paragraph and picture to members@scholarshippoints.com. When you do we will send you a code for 250 points! If your list is chosen to be featured on the website you will receive an additional 500 points!!! To increase your chances of being chosen make sure the scholarships you submit are relevant to the topic you choose, are from trustworthy sources, and helpful to other students.

Wondering where to find these scholarships? Here’s a tip: Search for the topic on Google, Bing, Yahoo or another search engine and vary the words or patterns you use to search. For example, “Left handed scholarships” or “Scholarships for Lefties” should pull up a ton of scholarships to use for your list.

Good luck and happy searching!

Did you miss #ScholarshipChat last night? If so you missed a very lively chat about the FAFSA, applying for financial aid, and financial aid options.  We had a ton of students asking questions and @StudentLoanNet on hand to offer advice. It was definitely one of the most successful chats to date!

Here is a recap of the chat:

If you were not able to join in, but still have questions about applying for financial aid and the FAFSA feel free to direct your questions to @WinScholarships and @StudentLoanNet at any time. You can also register for the Financial Aid Forum to ask you questions and get advice from industry professionals and peers.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2012 is off to a great start. If you have made it your goal to find and apply for more scholarships this year, we have a few to get you started today!

International Culinary Schools at the Art Institutes Scholarship

If you are a high school student who is thinking about going to culinary school, then this is a great scholarship for you. All you have to do to apply is submit an essay explaining your passion for global cuisine. The winner will receive a $20,000 scholarship from The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institute.

2012 Best Buy Scholarship Program

Once again Best Buy is awarding a number of scholarships to aspiring college students. The Best Buy Children’s Foundation will award as many as 1,200 $1,000 scholarships to students in grades 9-12. If you are still in high school this is definitely a great opportunity to check out.

ED’s College Net Price Calculator Student Video Challenge

If you or someone you know has great video skills you can help the Department of Education bring awareness to net price calculators. The College Net Price Calculator Student Video Challenge asks high school and college students to produce short videos highlighting why the calculators are useful. The winner of the challenge will receive $1,500.

That is all we have for today! If you do not qualify for any of these scholarships make sure you check out all of the new scholarships posted weekly on Student Scholarship Search.

Happy New Year! The first #ScholarshipChat of 2012 will take place on Monday, January 9th at 9:00pm ET. The chat will be moderated by @winscholarships. We will have our questions for you prepared, but make sure you bring your questions for us too!

The topic of this chat will be “Applying for Financial Aid”. We will be talking about different kinds of financial aid, the FAFSA, and how scholarships fit into the mix. We have some great resources to share so I hope you will stop by!

As always you can follow along using TweetChat to make participating in the chat even easier. If you login to TweetChat with your Twitter account and follow the hashtag #ScholarshipChat you will be automatically see updates and be included in the chat every time you tweet.

Looking forward to chatting with you!