Applying for Scholarships

Searching for Scholarships

First things first! Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)!

If you have not completed it, please do so.
Because:

  • The FAFSA is quicker and easier to complete than a scholarship search
  • It applies for the Pell Grant which is far more generous than most scholarships
  • Many scholarships also require the FAFSA

For further information on Federal financial aid, please visit Santa Fe College's Financial Aid Office.

The Bad News

  • Searching for scholarships is not easy - You should expect to spend several hours doing research, on the phone, on the web, writing letters, filling out applications, writing essays...
  • It's not quick either - It usually takes 4 to 6 months to receive any scholarship money
  • There are No Guarantees - You could do a lot of work and end up with no scholarship money.
  • There are many scams on the web using "Scholarship!" as the bait. Beware!

Good News

  • There are many scholarships available. Thousands. If you do a good search and follow up properly, one or more of them might become yours!
  • The Career Exploration Center offers personalized assistance to you in your scholarship search.
  • This page provides links to a number of legitimate sources of scholarship information.

Scam Warning

The links below are legitimate to the best of our knowledge. Please let us know if you find out otherwise!

Watch out for the words "Quick," "Easy" and "Guaranteed" - These words are clues that the link might be a scam. FinAid.org has a good page on the topic of scholarship scams.

Scholarship Websites

Santa Fe College Scholarships

Primary Applications

Other SF specific scholarships

SF International Education Scholarship

  • For SF students who wish to do one of our Study Abroad programs in another country.
  • These scholarships are intended to help students afford the costs of the trip.
  • The student must apply to the Study Abroad program before accessing the scholarship application.

SF Fine Arts Scholarships
For students majoring in Dance, Music, Theater, or the Visual Arts

SF Honors Program
If you are an excellent student with a very good GPA, 3.5 or better, you may qualify to enter our Honors program
Several scholarships are available for Honors students.

SF Student Ambassador Program
Student Ambassadors serve the College by leading campus tours, assisting in hosting major campus events, and serving as representatives of the college within the local community. In-state tuition is paid for Student Ambassadors during their year of service.

SF Career and Technical Education Scholarships

For students in:

To see a list of these programs of study, check out our Academics page.
To see the occupations for which these programs train, check out Career Coach.

SF Bachelor's Degree Scholarship
 Specifically for students completing a Bachelor's degree program at Santa Fe College

Other sources on Santa Fe pages:

Our Financial Aid Office maintains a page of links to Santa Fe scholarships, including some new ones

SF Financial Aid Handbook
lists a number of scholarships available to SF students.
These are automatically applied-for when you submit the Santa Fe College application and FAFSA.
Further descriptions of these scholarships are available in the College Rules Manual, sections 7.14 and 7.14P.

The Santa Fe College Financial Aid Office maintains a "Ways to Pay" page which contains some scholarship links not listed elsewhere.

SF Tuition Waivers and Exemptions

Emergency Resources

List of resources to help students dealing with life needs, issues, and crises. 
This includes assistance with child care costs, food, clothing, shelter, and computer loans. 
Limited funding is available to assist students in financial crisis.  

End of list for Santa Fe specific scholarships

The "BIG" Scholarship Search Engines

For everything else, near and far!

1. College Board Scholarship Search

  • It's a good way to "get your feet wet" with scholarship searching.
  • Create a free College Board account, if you don't already have one.
    • If you've taken the SAT test or AP courses, you do!
  • Answer the questions, and the program will show a list of scholarships for which you may qualify.

2. Peterson's Scholarship Search

  • The Santa Fe College Library has licensed Peterson's Test Prep which includes a search engine for the Peterson's scholarship collection. It is open to students through the SF Library Database.

    Follow these steps:

    1. Go to the Santa Fe College Library Databases
    2. Select: Peterson's Test Prep
    3. Check in with your Office365 credentials
      1. User name format: 12121212@sfcollege.edu
      2. Password: same as you use for eSantaFe
        You will be directed to the Peterson's Test Prep home page
    4. If you are not yet registered with Peterson's Test Prep
      1. Scroll down to find the Register button and select it
      2. Complete all blanks on the form to create your account
    5. If you have already registered with this service
      1. Scroll down to find the Login button
      2. Enter your user name and password.
      3. Be sure to save your user name and password
    6. Select: Find a School
    7. Scroll down and select: College and Scholarship Search
    8. Scroll down and select: Undergraduate Scholarship Search
      You may now start searching the Peterson's database of over 800 scholarships.

      If you are not yet a Santa Fe Student, you may search the Peterson's scholarship database from their own website.

Scholarships for International Students

State of Florida Scholarships

Transferring to a State University in Florida?

Most Financial Aid Offices at Florida Universities include lists of scholarships and grants available at their school.

Here are links to their Financial Aid Offices/Scholarship pages:

Going to a private or out-of-state school?

Find your school's website, navigate to their Financial Aid pages, and look for a listing of their scholarships.
If you have difficulty finding a school's website, try:

College Navigator

This program can also be useful in searching for colleges that offer your major in your desired location.

A few other legitimate scholarship resources

Professional Associations

Every profession has at least one association. They support their profession in many ways, one of which is to offer scholarships for students entering their field. Here is how to find them:

  1. Open a web browser
  2. Do a search for: "professional association abcdefg" where "abcdefg" is replaced by the profession you have in mind. (e.g. "professional association accounting" or "professional association physical therapy")
  3. Pay the most attention to .org and .edu sites. The .org sites are mostly for non-profit organizations, the .edu sites are colleges and universities who maintain collections of websites relevant to their programs of study. Be careful about .com sites. Some are good, but they usually have a profit motive and so may be biased.
  4. Upon finding an association you like, check for a search box and enter "scholarships" Sometimes the scholarships will be listed under "Education" or "Careers"

So what do you do with all these scholarship leads?

Our Financial Aid Office has several excellent short videos on how to follow-up on scholarship leads.

  • Applications
  • Essays
  • Letters of Reference

If you would like further assistance in your scholarship search, please Contact the Career Exploration Center to make an appointment.

rev. 11/22/23 JY