Find Money for College Through These Seven Top Websites

May 16, 2011.  Type “money for college” into the Google search engine and Google instantly returns 532,000,000 results. However, you may want to view the most influential websites, which may not include the sites listed at the top of Google’s list.

Recently I found a website that has been incredibly informative: Quantcast.com.  A programmer suggested I explore Quantcast in my quest to determine which websites receive the most traffic.  The great thing about Quantcast is that it often lists similar sites, similar to Amazon.com’s category for “customers who bought this item also bought”. In this way, one can follow a chain of sites to explore the most influential websites in that genre.

Here are seven top sites for finding funds for college.  Each site is followed by Quantcast’s description and estimate of their number of monthly visitors. For example, Ed.gov is visited by approximately 5.3 million people each month, a number equal to the entire population of the state of Minnesota.

  1. Ed.gov 5.3 M.  Provides information about the Department’s offices, programs, information and assistance services, funding opportunities, education statistics, publications, and education initiatives of the President and Secretary of Education.
  2. College Confidential 1.8 M. College admissions, search, financial aid, and scholarship resources, plus paid Ivy League college counseling.
  3. College Board 1.8 M.  Organization representing hundreds of colleges responsible for the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), the Advanced Placement (AP) program, and various equity efforts.
  4. Fastweb.com 998 K.  The scholarship search service now has a college directory and links to online college applications.
  5. Grants.gov 244 K.  Clearinghouse for federal grant opportunities. Features searchable listing by topic, along with information on the program management office, background, and pilot program of the E-Grants program.
  6. Scholarships.com 221 K.  Offers a financial aid search and loan information free of charge.
  7. Collegeapps 67 K.  News plus tips on scholarships, applications, rank, tests, visitations, essays and interviews.

[You may also want to read: Ten Websites Every College Applicant Should Know About ]

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