Dollars & Sense: Free app helps students find college scholarships
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — When Alabama native Christopher Gray was figuring out how to finance college, he applied for a lot of scholarships. He ended up winning $1,000,000 and is completely debt-free.
But his experience made him realize just how difficult and time-consuming applying for college scholarships can be.
"The second thing is that there are hundreds of millions of dollars ... that go unclaimed because students don't know it exists," Gray told CBS News Texas.
Four in 10 families did not use scholarships to cover college costs, according to an Ipsos-Sallie Mae report published this year. The reasons? Some families said they didn't think would get selected. Others said they thought the applications were too difficult to complete. And nearly half said they didn't know about available scholarships.
Gray saw the need, so he created Scholly. It's a free app that connects students to scholarships they're eligible for.
"You sign up, you put in your parameters, it takes about two minutes to do that and then you're instantly matched with scholarships you qualify for in minutes," Gray said.
According to Gray, Scholly has helped connect students to millions of dollars in scholarship money. This year, Scholly was acquired by Sallie Mae. It's a move Gray believes will help the app reach an even wider group of students.
Did you know November is National Scholarship Month? Gray said now is the time to start applying for scholarships if you need money next school year. Learn more about Scholly and hear some tips for applying for scholarships by watching the video at the top of this page.
Every week, CBS News Texas anchor Keith Russell tackles a personal finance segment in his Dollars & Sense segment. Watch it every Wednesday on CBS News Texas at 7 p.m. on TXA 21.
Here are some topics Keith has recently covered:
