Hi. I'd like to look for scholarships. Where do I start?

Fastweb.com is by far the best resource available to young students looking for free money. I applied for more than 10 different independent grants and scholarships through this site. There is literally a scholarship for everyone if you look hard enough. I was very active in community service, for instance, and received $10,000 from the Toyota Motor Company. Many companies offer grants such as this, so take advantage of them. The biggest mistake of the admissions process often comes through overlooking the immense financial opportunities available to incoming students. Also, fafsa.ed.gov is the site for federal financial aid. Always fill out a FAFSA. It’s an important element of your application, regardless of your current financial standing. You may get more grant money than you anticipate.

There are endowments that fund literally millions of scholarships. Don’t just browse the Internet for full rides. Take the time to write essays for the smaller $500 and $1,000 scholarships. First, they add up quickly. Second, once you write a couple of essays, you’ll find there is a pretty straightforward model to most application processes. Once you write four or five letters, you can make little changes and send them to other groups. This expedites the process and gives you a much better chance of getting the scholarships.

Be willing to work on financial aid if you need to. A kid from my hometown got about $100,000 in aid by winning a ton of smaller scholarships that he found on Fastweb.com.

Every college has a financial aid office. They offer all kinds of weird aid. Apply to all that you can. The Hastings Milledge Grant for Left-Handed Republican Narcoleptics has your name all over it.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is mandatory if you’ll be applying for any federal financial aid! The FAFSA Web site is www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/express.htm

School list servers can be a valuable source of financial aid information. Check out your school’s listserv for scholarship and leadership opportunities. For some reason, students aren’t interested in them; they just delete them, and don’t bother to read them. That’s a mistake if you are looking for money.