17 smart ways to shop scholarships

Applying for a scholarship is like buying a lottery ticket. You're taking a chance that a small investment, time and effort, could pay off big. And with scholarships, the odds are much better.

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For many students, though, the search alone seems daunting. It doesn't need to be that way. Here are 17 ways to cut the time you spend and boost your odds of winning:

1. Play the numbers game. One secret to securing scholarships? Ask for a lot of scholarships. Ben Kaplan, who financed a free ride through Harvard University with $90,000 in scholarships and a year's worth of college tuition credits, estimates he applied for roughly three dozen scholarships and won about two-thirds.

And, "I got better over time," says Kaplan, who wrote "How to Go to College Almost for Free," and is featured on www.scholarshipcoach.com.

No one's going to dock you for making too many requests. "Nobody checks to see if you apply elsewhere," says David Rosen, co-author of "Free $ for College for Dummies." Instead, you'll increase your odds of winning something. "Apply for as many scholarships and grants as you can," he says.

When Kaplan talked with other scholarship winners, he found the one factor that they had in common was determination.

2. Realize there are scholarships for everyone. "A lot of people figure 'because I'm average' or 'my parents make too much' money, there's no point," says Mark Oleson, assistant professor and director of the Financial Counseling Clinic at Iowa State University. Not the case, he says.

You can get scholarships based on your interests, where you live, or even who your grandparents were. The trick is to find the right fit between you and the money.

3. Cover all the bases. In general, there are three kinds of scholarships -- federal or state grants, money that will come through the college or university, and private scholarships given out by groups, companies or individuals. You want to be sure that you've tapped all three. Your high school guidance counselor and school financial aid office should be able to help with most of the first two and a few of the third. But for many of the private grants, you could be on your own.

4. Make the most of what your high school can offer. It might be a bulletin board with flyers or a fully functioning Web site, but use whatever resources your school can offer. That includes the guidance counselor.

High school guidance counselors have "access to quite a bit of information that comes to them," and are a good starting point, says Oleson. Not only can the counselor help you understand which scholarships you might be eligible for, chances are they can put some applications in your hand, he says. And "there's a psychological benefit to making some immediate progress."

5. Get the best information. If your school doesn't have great resources for scholarship information, "target other schools in your city, and beyond, known for strong college prep," says Kaplan. "I, physically, went across town to the rival high school."

In its scholarship center, he learned of several scholarships that no one at his high school knew about -- and won them. "It made thousands of dollars of difference," he says.

You can also contact colleges well-known in your chosen academic discipline. "Go to the school or the Web site," says Kaplan.

And if you've already selected a college, you can use their financial aid office as a resource.

6. Crawl the Web. There are some great Internet sites that will help you hunt down that money. Some of the favorites: www.fastweb.com, www.collegeboard.com, www.finaid.com, www.srnexpress.com and www.petersons.com.

"One of the biggest mistakes people make is they search one or two of these, and they stop," says Kaplan. Each site will have slightly different offerings.

7. Work the geography. You can hunt for scholarships in your hometown and the town where your college is located, too, says Kaplan. If you're going away to school, contact high schools in your college town and the college itself to see who might be giving out money for school.