THE BULLETIN
The Bulletin: scholarship site news and analysis
Short answer
Dated notes from The Deadline Desk on how scholarship sites work and change: ownership, database claims, ratings, the no-essay awards the sites run themselves, and how we score. Every post gives its publication date and links to its sources.
Who runs the scholarship sites in 2026: lenders, nonprofits, media groups and startups
- Market
Scholarship sites change hands and names more than students realize. Cappex is now Appily, Scholly sits on Sallie Mae's website, Fastweb's privacy policy comes from Iron Corp US Inc., and Going Merry has closed. Here is who runs what, and why it matters.
4 min read
10,000 or 3.7 million: what scholarship database sizes do and do not tell you
- Data
- Method
Scholarship sites quote database sizes from 10,000 to 3.7 million. The figures are the sites' own, they count different things, and none of them is the number of awards you can win. Here is how to read them.
4 min read
Ratings check: what Trustpilot and App Store numbers say about scholarship sites
- Ratings
We collected the Trustpilot and App Store ratings for the scholarship sites we review. Bold.org's are the strongest, Fastweb's the weakest, and Scholarships.com has too few to judge. Here is how much weight the numbers can carry.
4 min read
The no-essay scholarships the sites run themselves, compared
- Awards
ScholarshipOwl, Niche, BigFuture, Scholly, Unigo and Bold.org run awards of their own. We lined up what each says about the prize, the entry rules and how winners are picked, from their pages.
4 min read
A parent's guide to scholarship sites: how to help without taking over
- Parents
- How-to
Parents can make the biggest difference by setting up the system, protecting the time and checking the money and privacy terms. The essays and choices work best when they stay with the student.
4 min read
Why we weight application effort highest, and what it costs ScholarshipOwl elsewhere
- Method
Our ranking asks which site helps a student send more applications that fit with the least wasted effort, so application effort saved carries 25%. That puts ScholarshipOwl first, and the same scores put it last on cost and privacy. Here is the reasoning and the alternatives.
3 min read
Local scholarships: the awards big sites can miss, and how to find them
- How-to
- Awards
Local awards from community groups, employers and schools often have the fewest applicants. Some sit in large databases, many do not. Here is a simple routine for finding them.
4 min read
What changed on scholarship sites' own pages, December 2025 to October 2026
- Market
- Data
A dated record of changes we found on scholarship sites' pages when we reviewed them: new privacy policy dates, a newly claimed review profile, a closure and current award deadlines. It covers changes from December 2025 to October 2026.
4 min read