Scholarships and grants are helpful ways to fund your child’s college education. They provide you with free money that can go towards tuition or other educational expenses.
To find and apply for scholarships, ask your child to sign up for Going Merry (https://www.goingmerry.com) -- it’s free! Going Merry has thousands of national, regional, and local scholarships.
To sign up, your child can go to: https://app.goingmerry.com/sign-up#students
They can also download the Going Merry mobile app (and sign up that way) on iOS or Android.
Here are some reasons why I recommend Going Merry above other scholarship sites:
- Scholarship bundles: You can apply to multiple scholarships using one application and the same essay prompt.
- Vetted scholarships: The Going Merry team periodically reviews every scholarship listing, to ensure the scholarship program is still active and the information is correct.
- Personal matching: Once signed up, you’ll answer a few questions to fill out a basic profile, and then get matched to scholarships that fit your background, academics, interests, etc.
- Clear organization: You can shortlist favorites and get deadline reminders about them. All drafts and applications are saved, and you’ll get updates on the scholarships you’ve applied to.
- Direct, auto-filled applications: You can apply to many scholarships directly on the site (with forms helpfully pre-filled).
- Financial aid applications: Seniors can also submit the FAFSA® through Going Merry, using their more user-friendly version of the government form, which they call “the FAFSA® Made Easier.”
If you, as the parent, want to also sign up just to browse around and recommend specific scholarships to your child, you can sign up for a student account yourself. Here’s what Going Merry recommends in that case:
- Use your own name and email to sign up, but fill out the initial questions and your Profile based on your child--so put their class year, school, GPA, SAT/ACT scores, ethnicity, extracurricular, etc. This allows you to see a “Matched scholarships” list with scholarships your child is eligible for.
- Primarily, we recommend parents to browse the scholarships list and then note (and pass on) any scholarships they think their children should apply for. So if you see a scholarship your child should apply for, you can send them a link to it by copying the public link, which is a button on the right side. (You can access this “public link” URL without being logged in.)
- If your child wants to apply, they should create their own Going Merry account linked to their own email address. They will also be able to upload documents, copy and paste essays, request recommendation letters, etc. using their own account.
Best of luck to your family, in applying for scholarships!
