What's the best scholarships website?

October 23, 2008 6:37 PM

Are there any good websites for external scholarships? I recently joined fastweb, and except for getting spammy emails and emails about weird scholarships I couldn't possibly qualify for, I didn't find anything for me.

Background:
Late twenties white male, permanent resident but not US citizen, been in the workforce for four years after finishing school, has Bachelor and Masters in Engineering, going for PhD in Engineering or Applied Math starting next fall.

posted by spacefire to education (3 comments total)

PhD?

Well, as far as I know, most PhDs are funded through TA/RAships or fellowships. You won't want to look for funding through the traditional undergrad scholarship searches.

Once you're accepted, you'll get a funding package. At my university, most people get TAships that include tuition, fees, health care and a stipend each month. You can also go to the graduate division website for the school that you're accepted at and check out the fellowships that they offer.

But, as LobsterMitten will say soon, no one should pay for their own PhD.
posted by k8t at 6:57 PM on October 23, 2008

k8t is correct, any program that is serious about you will offer a stipend of some sort, either an assistantship or fellowship.

There are some prestigious fellowship programs out there (NSF, NASA, DOD) mostly sponsored by the government. There are also field-specific programs that pay for you to do research at a certain facility, like this one. But the vast majority of people who get PhDs do it with funding from their institution.

PhDs.org is a good place to look for broad information about all things grad school related, including funding options. But it also has a huge library of other useful information.
posted by dseaton at 12:28 AM on October 24, 2008

fastweb is actually pretty good at finding the scholarships that are out there; there are just fewer scholarships of the normal kind offered as you pursue more advanced degrees. Look into work-study, subsidized loans, fellowships and the like.
posted by Chris4d at 11:11 AM on November 6, 2008