Search for an Outside Scholarship

Common Outside Scholarship Search Engines

U.S Citizen & Eligible Non-Citizen Students

Foreign Students

In addition, most high schools have information regarding local scholarship opportunities and many employers have scholarship programs for the children of employees.

Advice on Applying for Outside Scholarships

  1. Do Your Research
    • Register for the search engines listed on this page
    • Visit your school’s guidance and/or college counseling office for information on scholarships
    • Check in with your parents’ employer to see if they offer scholarships for children of employees
  2. Create a separate email account just for your scholarship search
    • Use free services such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.)
  3. Make sure you meet all deadlines
    • Start researching the summer before you apply to college; some scholarships may have deadlines in the fall of your senior year
    • Give your teachers/counselors/employers plenty of advance notice to prepare a recommendation
    • Don’t wait until deadline day!  There are never penalties for submitting early, but you may often lose out if your miss the deadlines by even a day

*** You should never have to pay for a scholarship search.  All of the websites listed above are free of charge ***

How do outside scholarships affect my Columbia financial aid award?
The scholarships you receive from outside sources will be used to reduce the
work study portion of your financial aid package. For example, if you are
awarded a $2,000 National Merit Scholarship, your work study expectation will
be reduced by the full $2,000. Only after your work study has been completely
eliminated will your scholarships begin to reduce any Columbia Grant you may
have received.  

PLEASE
NOTE: Outside Scholarships/outside funding
may NOT reduce the Parent Contribution or the Student Contribution (summer work
expectation).

Tuition benefits from your/your
family’s employer are applied to your need-based financial aid award as any
other outside scholarship/outside funding (see above paragraph).

ROTC and Veteran’s Benefits:
Scholarships received through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and/or
veteran’s benefits/Post-9-11 GI Bill benefits are applied to your need-based
financial aid award in the same manner as any other outside
scholarships/outside funding (see above paragraph).  For further
information about ROTC at Columbia, please visit http://www.columbia.edu/cu/rotc/.

Current/Enrolling Columbia Students:  If your outside scholarship agency needs to contact our office or send payment on your behalf, please direct them to the following mailing address:

Office of Financial Aid and Educational Financing
100 Hamilton Hall, MC 2802
1130 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
ATTN: XinHan-Jane Zhang

Please ensure that all outside scholarship checks are made payable to "Columbia University" and that your full name and Columbia ID# are included in either the memo field of the check or accompanying documentation so that the funds will be correctly applied to your account.