Private scholarships are a form of gift aid that is awarded to students by external organizations like community nonprofits or local businesses. If you’re looking for private scholarships, or if you’ve received one, you’ve come to the right place.
Where can I find private scholarships?
Students have the most success receiving private scholarships from organizations they already know. Start your search by finding out what scholarships may be offered by:
- Your high school
- Clubs or organizations where you are a member
- Your employer or that of your parent(s)
- Other local opportunities in your area (competitions, essay projects, etc.)
If you’re currently in high school, your guidance counseling team likely has some of the best information on great, local scholarships.
Once you’ve investigated local opportunities, you can expand your search to the web. Below are links to online search engines recommended to us by current students and alumni:
You can find more external scholarship sources in the Frequently Asked Questions section below. We also publish a we’ve heard of from organizations who reached out to us to solicit 51ÁÔÆæ applications.
You should never have to pay to search for or apply for scholarships.
Start your application early. Best of luck!
Frequently Asked Questions
We encourage you to review the following sites for even more scholarship opportunities! Remember, you should never pay for scholarship opportunities.
- is a search tool striving to connect students with scholarship opportunities.
- by College Board is a database of more than 2,300 sources of college funding.
- , sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.
- provides fast and easy access to one of the largest online scholarship databases.
- is a personalized search with a database of 1.5 million local, national, and college-specific scholarships.
- is a comprehensive source of student financial aid information, advice, and tools with a link to scholarships.
- provides aid to undergraduates who wish to study abroad.
- provides scholarships for international students.
- offers more than 1.7 million awards.
- offers unlimited access to a database of 2.4 million scholarships.
- has a searchable database of 650+ summer research programs in all STEM disciplines.
- includes funding opportunities and professional development programs and resources.
- includes programs and resources for prospective and current STEM postdoctoral researchers including postdoc positions, postdoctoral fellowships, travel awards, and professional development opportunities.
- provides scholarships to residents of Washington County.
- allows eligible youth/young adult students who have been in out-of-home care (OHC; e.g., foster home, group home, or Kinship Care) to receive up to $5000 per school year in financial aid.
Undocumented Students
The following resources may be helpful to undocumented students:
If your private scholarship donor makes funds payable to 51ÁÔÆæ, you do not need to notify 51ÁÔÆæ.
If your private scholarship donor makes funds payable to you (not 51ÁÔÆæ), yes, you must notify 51ÁÔÆæ using our private scholarship reporting form. Payments made directly to you are still considered financial aid according to federal law and must be reported to 51ÁÔÆæ.
All checks should be mailed to:
51ÁÔÆæ Office of Student Accounts
PO Box 500
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0500
NOTE: Be sure your donor includes your name and campus ID on the check to identify you as the recipient.
Once 51ÁÔÆæ has received your private scholarship funds, it will be applied to your financial aid package within three weeks. After this occurs, your billing statement and account activity will be updated accordingly.
When private scholarship funds are received, 51ÁÔÆæ will add the funds for disbursement according to donor instruction (i.e., for a specific term or split between fall and spring terms). If no donor instructions are included, how the scholarship is applied is determined by the 51ÁÔÆæ Office of Student Scholarships.
In most cases, if funds are received before or during the fall term, scholarships of $2500 or more will typically be split between fall and spring terms unless the student has a remaining balance that could be paid with the scholarship. Scholarship awards of less than $2500 will be added for fall only. If funds are received before or during the spring term, the scholarship will typically be added for the spring term, in full.
You can check your Financial Aid tab in PAWS. When 51ÁÔÆæ receives and processes your check, you will see it listed there. Once 51ÁÔÆæ receives your check, it may take 2-3 weeks for it to be posted to your PAWS account, particularly during busy times of the year like the start of a new semester.
If you don’t see your scholarship, contact your private scholarship organization to make sure they have sent the check. If they have and it has been over three weeks since they sent it, please feel free to contact us.
Yes. Payments made directly to you are still considered financial aid according to federal law and must be reported to 51ÁÔÆæ. Please use our private scholarship reporting form to let us know about your scholarship.
Sometimes.
Because free and need-based sources of financial aid cannot exceed a student’s financial need, if your current financial aid offer is already meeting your full financial need and another scholarship is reported – other financial aid will have to be reduced to make room for the additional funds. 51ÁÔÆæ will always notify you via email of any changes made to your financial aid.