Reviewing 3 Popular Scholarship Platforms

Reviewing 3 Popular Scholarship Platforms

Introduction

Paying for college can be easily overwhelming, especially when prices keep going up and financial aid can stretch thin for many. That’s why students are persistently searching for scholarships to get money to pay for living expenses, tuition costs, textbooks, etc. There are many scholarship websites online that offer funding within easy reach, but it is hard to decipher whether these websites are truly worth your time. In this post, I’ll be reviewing three popular scholarship websites: Raise.me, Unigo, and Going Merry, to see whether they are legitimate or not. I’ll be going through their main features, credibility, pros, and cons/criticisms. Additionally, I’m providing some user feedback to help you navigate these platforms and decide where to focus your scholarship search. I hope this breakdown will provide you with a better understanding of what to expect from each platform and what to avoid.

Raise.me

Raise.me provides appealing microscholarships for high school students. These microscholarships are rds for small achievements such as receiving an A in a class, having a leadership position, or volunteering. This website partners with colleges to reward progress at its earliest stages, rather than at the admissions process. 

Pros: This website has scored well in user review due to its highly rated safety and legitimacy (approximately 87% of users say that it is safe to use). To add on, it provides students with a clear view of potential financial aid, for the reason that it allows students to accumulate scholarship money over time.

Cons/Criticisms: There is some suspicion and doubt surrounding the reliability of the funding. For instance, some users suspect that the platform may re-label institutional merit awards and promote them as exclusive micro-scholarships. Furthermore, it presents a limited number of schools which can narrow down opportunities and options (funding from 250 colleges out of over 5,800 total post-secondary institutions in the US).

Unigo

Unigo is another scholarship website that provides grant listings as well. It has over 3.6 million total scholarships and grants, with the additional benefit of college reviews and resources (which is especially helpful for high school seniors). 

Pros: It’s an established platform with an extremely immense volume of listings. For this reason, it offers unique scholarship opportunities that you’ve probably never heard of, such as the “$2,000 Minecraft Scholarship” (the next application deadline is September 30th) or the “Flavor of the Month Scholarship” (the next application deadline is September 30th and the award amount is $1,500). 

Cons/Criticisms: Some users warn that this platform offers low-effort scholarships that seem more like a raffle prize, which raises legitimacy concerns. Additionally, Unigo warns applicants about scholarship scams when applying and states that users should be diligent (watch for potential scams and verify the scholarship’s credibility prior to applying). 

Going Merry

The Going Merry is a scholarship service that offers optimized searching, hand-selected outcomes, and direct applications (often in the app or website). Additionally, it offers a variety of scholarships and supports local scholarships as well. 

Pros: It contains carefully selected scholarships and the eligibility for each is clearly stated. Additionally, it offers high school and district-specific offerings and is free for both students and schools. This website provides real human support, strong data privacy, and has engaging features such as auto-filled forms and "bundled applications” (allows the user to apply to multiple scholarships by filling out a singular form). Also, the overall reliability and satisfaction ratings seem strong, with a 4.8/5 app rating.

Cons/Criticisms: A certain number of users have reported inaccurate due dates and skepticism surrounding the “one-click” scholarships. Some also say that there are technical glitches. The community also advises using Going Merry to find soures, then applying for them in the scholarship’s original/official website. 

Conclusion

In the end, no scholarship platform does it all. Raise.me and Going Merry are identified as some of the most legitimate scholarship websites and stand out for their user-friendliness, and Unigo offers a gigantic database with hundreds of opportunities and a variety of options to choose from. Your time as a student is valuable, so using these tools play a big part of an efficient scholarship strategy. I hope this post helps, and good luck to everyone applying!

**All the images were generated by Canva's Magic Media**

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