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?
- How to use the Going Merry Scholarship Portal
- 1) Sign up with your email.
- 2) Create a profile.
- 3) Get matched!
- 4) Upload documents, and get detailed in your profile.
- 5) Review and filter your matched scholarships.
- Filter scholarships by…
- 6) Save your favorite scholarships.
- 7) Apply for scholarships
- 8) Check out our bonus tools
- But wait… this sounds awesome. How can it all be free?
- Ready for a better scholarship process?
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.
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.
If you’re wondering where you’re at with your profile, you can click the “Home” tab on the left side of the page to go to the homepage of your dashboard. You’ll see helpful information like potential scholarship awards, a profile completion grade (and what’s missing!), and recent activity once you’ve browsed and/or applied for scholarships.
5) Review and filter your matched scholarships.
Once you’ve updated your profile with required documents, jump into the “Scholarships” tab to review what scholarships you’re matched with. Matched scholarships will appear with a green checkmark in the top left corner of the scholarship names.
Filter scholarships by…
Best Value
Competitiveness
Award Amount
Completion Time
Deadline
Number of Recipients
If you toggle “Showing matched scholarships only,” you can see the full list of scholarships, including ones you may or may not be eligible for.
- If you see scholarships with a red X, it indicates you aren’t eligible to apply for a scholarship.
- If you see scholarships with an orange question mark, you may or may not be eligible. This is because there is an eligibility requirement based on a part of your profile you haven’t yet filled out.
An orange question mark indicates we’re unsure if you qualify for a scholarship because key information could be missing from your profile.
For example, if a scholarship is offered for Hispanic high school seniors from Texas, we might know you’re a high school senior from Texas with the information in your Going Merry profile. However, if you didn’t fill out the ethnicity information in your profile, then we might be unsure if we can match you with this scholarship without that information.
Going Merry tip: Review all scholarships application requirements just in case you do qualify but need to add information to your profile!
6) 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 clicking the favorites filter in the top right of the Scholarships tab.
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 for. 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.)
7) 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.
Click “View” to the far right of the scholarship you’re ready to apply for.
On the next page, you’ll see an entire breakdown of the application. The scholarship name, provider, award amount, deadline, and required documents.
Click “Start Application” on the right side of the page to jump in!
The next few steps will walk you through the scholarship requirements, such as answering a series of questions, confirming information, and submitting your essay. You can also see a snapshot of the scholarship, your profile information, and required documents on the right side of the page.
If you’re missing a document or information, you’ll see an X to the left of the required information (and you can upload your attachment right there!).
All of your application changes are auto-saved, so if you wind up leaving for the day and returning to the application later, you can jump back in where you left off.
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 for 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.
8) Check out our bonus tools
Our bonus tools, including the Budget for College tool and the Find a Job tool, can help you plan for your future.
Budget for College Tool
Search for the college you’re planning to attend.
Enter the estimated cost of attendance.
Enter the amount of financial aid you received in your college financial aid award letter. This will only include scholarships and grants from the college.
Based on the amounts you enter in the “Cost of Attendance” and “Financial Aid” fields, you’ll see your remaining financial need at the bottom.
Fill out the remaining fields of financial aid you’ve received or plan to receive per year, including family contribution, part-time work, external scholarships, and student loans. You’ll see this information broken down into a handy meter on the left-hand side.
The goal is to get your remaining financial need down to $0 so you can plan on how you’ll pay for your tuition in full.
Find a Job tool
Use this tool to search for jobs near you both in and out of college.
Filter jobs by type: part-time, temporary, summer, internship, and full-time.
Filter jobs by distance.
Filter jobs by job post date.
Click “Apply” and we’ll send you to the company website to learn more and apply for the job directly on their site.
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.
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!
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