I saw this blog request and immediately felt the urge to dive into my electronic notepad and begin jotting down my ideas. The product of my reminiscing and own former hunt for college funds led to the following response:

The very first site I ever utilized I happened to encounter many years ago. You still will find it at the top of Google's list. Fastweb claims to be the nation's #1 scholarship search engine as it is reportedly the "largest, most accurate, and most frequently updated scholarship database online". I believe this, from experience, to be true. I particularly enjoyed applying to the numerous writing contests (as I believe you can deduce why that was so), and actually won one of them. You can search scholarships for particular ethnicities, athleticism, scholastic ability, community involvement, major concentration and so forth.

Some specific and informative scholarship websites:

CollegeBoard: Some great scholarships to be found here, as well as a financial aid planner for incoming freshman, a comprehensive college matching search, and useful information on entrance exams.

UNCF: The United Negro College Fund web site. This fund provides over 300 scholarship programs to help provide students from low to moderate income families go to the college of their dreams.

Career Advancement Scholarship: A scholarship for disadvantaged women who want to increase their education for their future career goals and aspirations.

CollegeNet: An interesting twist on earning college money. In this site, students create profiles and post topics on forums and voice their opinions! If other students like what you say, they can vote for you. The more points you earn, the higher your candidate status. The top five candidates can earn thousands in college scholarships. Their moto? "It Pays to Think."

Finaid has some great scholarships available to very talented athletes.

It also should be made known that another useful tool next to a scholarship is a grant. Grants are very similar to scholarships, but they are different in that there are a certain number guaranteed by the government. If you happen to qualify, you receive a check immediately. Some extremely useful information on how to obtain them can be found here. Please be aware, however, that many sites try to provide "grant information" by purchasing booklets and so forth. AVOID THIS SCAMS.

Some specific and informative grant websites:

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. These grants provide anywhere from $2,500 - $30,000 in aid for both undergraduate and graduate students in photography.

Collegescholarships.org This website also heavily promotes grants, and has some excellent listings. This particular link focuses on athletic grants (I must notably mark the USA Track and Field Foundation Grant as I reminisce on my own past). You can also research housing and minority grants here, as well as "101 Grants You've Never Heard of".

The trick with searching for useful sites is really getting specific with your search engines. If you are a young, athletic female, try searching for "athletic scholarships for women." If you just type "college scholarships" into google, you are going to come up with some useful information, but there is a lot of junk out there! Hone in on your search and you will be sure to find plenty of matches!

The most useful search tool for scholarships ever? Scholarship Search Engine. This search engine is powered by google, but thanks to CollegeScholarships.org, it is customized and weeds out all the spam.