As of December 2018, BJU ScholarshipUniverse offers all accepted and current students a new way to search through thousands of potential scholarships.
The primary goal of BJU ScholarshipUniverse is to offer a safe place to search for external scholarships. Staff researchers find, evaluate and add scholarships to the database. This review process saves students from dead ends and—more importantly—scams.
The University of Arizona created ScholarshipUniverse for its students. Since the school partnered with Campus Logic in 2016, universities nationwide have used ScholarshipUniverse.
An Opportunity, Not Easy Money
Many students use BJU ScholarshipUniverse thinking that they will easily find and receive thousands of scholarship dollars. But just because the search is easier does not mean it’s easy.
Even with the website, earning scholarships takes work. Susan Young, BJU’s director of Financial Aid, compares searching for scholarships to searching for gold during the California Gold Rush: “You (have) to (work) for all of them (just like) you had to use a shovel and pickaxe to get the gold out of the hills.”
BJU ScholarshipUniverse does not provide all the information about scholarships at first glance. Students see possibilities, investigate, then decide if they will work. Some have potential, but others do not. “It might look like it’s a huge nugget, but it may turn out to be … tiny,” Young said.
She also pointed out that while many search for gold, not everyone gets rich. The same goes for scholarships. However, applying for more scholarships increases the prospect of getting more financial aid dollars.
Applying for scholarships is a time investment—students still have to go through them one at a time. But as Young said, “You have to be willing to work hard for things that are good.”
How to Use BJU ScholarshipUniverse
The website has tools to make the search organized and efficient.
- Begin by answering the questionnaire. More than 380 questions narrow the number of scholarships that fit you. The website begins to match you to scholarships as soon as you start to answer questions, and the more you answer the better. Later, you can view the questions you’ve answered and edit them if your information changes.
- Search for specific scholarships by name. Type all or part of a scholarship title into the search bar. You can also conduct an advanced search by category (e.g., organization, open date, deadline date).
- Filter results by internal or external scholarships, and sort by due date or amount (high to low and low to high).
- Glance through your results and pin what you’d like to take a second look at. Eliminate the ones that you are not interested in.
- Tabs organize scholarships by match, partial match and non-match, based on your question answers.
- Check the eligibility requirements for match errors. In partial matches, look for unanswered questions that—if you were to answer—would give you more matches.
- Side tabs organize and give easy access to applications, awards and documents.
- Turn on notifications. They let you know about imminent deadlines and actions you need to take.
- Use the feedback button. It directly contacts Campus Logic about problems on the website. Contact about suspicious scholarships or about match results that include a requirement which a question you answered should have excluded.
Talk to the Financial Aid Office if help is needed learning how to use the website or if encountering issues logging on.
Improvements
Previously, the program had an error that matched students to scholarships in or from states that an answered question should have eliminated. This problem has been solved, and Campus Logic requests that any errors like this be reported with the feedback button.
The Financial Aid Office also recently added BJU-endowed scholarships to BJU ScholarshipUniverse. Students will receive information about these opportunities and the deadlines as they come up. The Financial Aid Office will continue to automatically apply basic scholarships—such as Legacy or ACT scholarships—to student accounts.
See Also: ScholarshipUniverse: A Scholarship-Finding Tool for Students
