How to use Going Merry to find scholarships and apply for them, all on one platform
Applying for college is exhausting enough. You don’t need to add “sifting through countless scholarship forms to apply for scholarships” to your long to-do-list. We’re here to show you just how easy it is to use Going Merry to get scholarships for college.
What is Going Merry?
Going Merry is your one-stop shop for scholarships. We’re not just one of the best scholarship search engines, but we’re also the only scholarship application platform–all offered to students for free. High school counselors have shared just how easy we make it to apply for scholarships!
Why does Going Merry work? Because we were in your shoes not long ago, so we know exactly what the pain points were. In fact, Going Merry began as a research project at Stanford University, when our founders were applying for scholarships and realized just how broken the whole scholarship app process is.
So, we fixed it. You’re welcome.
Our scholarship finder app was designed with students like YOU in mind. So let’s break down how it all works.
How to use the Going Merry Scholarship Portal
Here’s an introductory video. We also do a step-by-step breakdown below:
1) Sign up with your email.
It’s a 2 step process, that takes about 30 seconds. The first page will look like this:
After you enter your name and email, you’ll get to this screen–which is basically telling you to verify your email by clicking a link we’ve sent you.
Hot tip: If you click the “Sign up with Google” button, you won’t need to remember an extra password. You also won’t have to verify your email by clicking a link we send you. (See? We’re trying to save you time–right from the beginning.)
2) Create a profile.
We’ll ask you a series of quick questions, such as your education level (high school, community college, college, graduate), your graduation year, your GPA, and your intended major. No judging here – just collecting some initial information so we can match you with the best scholarships!
3) Get matched!
Right after completing the sign-up questions, you’ll get matched to scholarships you are eligible for.
We recommend that you start at this matched scholarships section. In general, this is where you’ll find scholarships that best fit your needs – financially, personally, with your major, and within your state of residence.
That said, we’ve got two other scholarship sections we recommend that you peruse. Find these by going to the “Scholarships” section of the platform.
(1) Local: Scholarships available in your area based on your location.
(2) College: Financial aid and scholarship opportunities provided by colleges.
4) Upload documents, and get detailed in your profile.
At this point, you’ve probably answered only the original sign-up questions that filled out your basic profile. We encourage you to go to the Profile section of your account to answer more questions. This may match you with more scholarships with specific eligibility requirements.
You can also upload documents – like your resume, transcript, or SAT scores. You can even request recommendation letters. Anything you upload to your profile can be used for any scholarship application, so you’ll always have access to your files.
5) Save your favorite scholarships.
Create a shortlist of scholarships you’re interested in applying for. To do this, click the heart symbol next to any scholarship.
You can then review all saved scholarships by going to the main Scholarships page and selecting “Favorites.”
Hot tip: You might also prefer to do the opposite or favoriting: hiding! You can also do that by hitting the cancel button on a scholarship. (When you hover over it, the button should say “Mark as ignored”). When you ignore a scholarship, it will disappear from your matched scholarships list.
Extra hot tip: If you’ve matched with lots of scholarships (good for you!), you might have trouble deciding which ones to apply to. To prioritize, you might think about using some of our filters, like the estimated application time (to find the quick, easy scholarships) or the number of applicants (to identify less competitive scholarships you’ve got a higher chance of winning.)
6) Apply for scholarships
This is the whole point of Going Merry! You’ve done the good work of filling out your profile, checking out your matched scholarships, and shortlisting your favorites. Now it’s time to apply–and you can do so directly on our website.
You’ll never have to enter the same information twice, thanks to our auto-filled applications. (Typing your name and birthdate 10 times for 10 different applications? Not anymore!) You can apply to multiple scholarships at once, and you can keep an eye on the status of your scholarship applications once you’ve submitted your applications.
Hot tip: Need help with your essays? Check out these winning scholarship essay examples and this winning scholarship video.
But wait… this sounds awesome. How can it all be free?
Don’t worry, there’s nothing strange going on. Our awesome scholarship providers fund our platform, which allows us to offer the scholarship app for free to students and high school counselors.
We do not fund Going Merry by selling any data on to third parties. We are committed to your data privacy. We ONLY ever pass on your data in the two instances when you’re giving us express permission to do so: (1) when you are applying to scholarships, we pass on the application to the scholarship provider/funder, and (2) when you indicate interest in learning more about a specific college’s financial aid packages, we pass on your profile information to that specific college.
Advanced Features
Now that you’ve got the basics down– we’ll walk you through some of our other, more advanced features: MerryApps, MerryBudget, MerryAdvisor, and MerryJobs.
MerryApps
This is a quick application for multiple scholarships, bundled into one. That’s because we’ve identified several scholarships with really similar essay prompts.
As always, your personal information will be pre-filled, and all you have to do is write an essay (where applicable), add documents (if you haven’t already uploaded them to your profile), and then submit your MerryApp.
Going Merry will automatically send your application to multiple scholarships in one session! More information here.
MerryBudget
One of the coolest features within the Going Merry scholarship portal is MerryBudget. Just enter the college you plan to attend, your estimated cost of attendance, and how much financial aid you’ve received. We then tell you different ways to bridge the gap.
No financial aid yet? No problem! You’ll still receive personalized suggestions based on the information you enter so you’ll have a better understanding of your budget going into college.
Note: We’re also busy improving on this section, so soon we’ll be able to pre-populate what we think the costs (and your institutional aid package) would look like!
MerryAdvisor
Still have questions about financial aid? That’s where our MerryAdvisors come in. You can book a video call with an advisor to walk you through your cost of attendance, explain the different parts of your financial aid package, and answer any other questions you might have. The video conferencing makes it convenient for you, so you don’t even have to leave your couch to ask for help!
Keep in mind: our Going Merry scholarship portal is free, but the MerryAdvisor is a totally optional, paid, add-on option.
MerryJobs
Looking for a part time gig? Or did you recently graduate and now you’re looking to settle in to a career? Our MerryJobs has a handy-dandy job search integration with ZipRecruiter, so you can search for jobs in your area (or anywhere else you’d like!).
Just search, click apply, and then you’ll be directed to the ZipRecruiter website to apply to that job.
We know this is a LOT of information to process. So if you’re confused or got any additional questions, no worries. Pop over your thoughts to support@goingmerry.com. Our team will be more than happy to help you in your journey through our Going Merry scholarship app portal!
Ready for a better scholarship process?
Now that you’ve passed a Going Merry crash course, you’re ready to begin applying for scholarships. We believe in you!
Kelly Lamano
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