My mom made me sit through a webinar hosted by The Scholarship System, and now I’m trying to figure out if they’re legit before she spends $700 on their lesson program (the price is for 4 more hours at the moment). Does anyone know if it’s trustworthy or not?
I tried the one-week trial, and honestly, it only helped with finding scholarships through Google. It’s not really worth buying since I finished the whole course in a week.
Yes, they are legitimate. That said, here’s my experience.
I bought The Scholarship System last year, thinking of it as an investment. It was a great starting point for helping my son, and there’s so much information that I still haven’t gone through everything. At times, the sheer amount of content can feel overwhelming.
I really like their app and Google Chrome extension for tracking scholarships—it’s been super helpful. The program definitely got me moving in the right direction and taught me how to search for good scholarships.
However, I wasn’t impressed with their editing services. I found Dave from Scholarship GPS, and he was honestly much better.
In hindsight, even though I didn’t use all their resources, the information they provided was solid. I’d probably do it again (I renewed at the discount price). I believe if I had started earlier, it would have been even more beneficial. We needed to hit the ground running when we started, though.
If the cost is a concern, I recommend checking out Monica Matthews’ eBooks (they’re reasonably priced) or Dave’s video course from Scholarship GPS. Both offer valuable info but in a more digestible format. Altogether, I spent about $1,500 on resources, and my son put in the work—about 320 hours applying for scholarships—and earned enough to fully pay for college. But remember, if you don’t have the determination and perseverance, none of these resources will win scholarships for you.
For context, my son had a 3.85 GPA, a 23 ACT score, ranked 10th in a class of 30, took 2 dual credit classes, no AP classes, played varsity basketball, baseball, and tennis in his junior year (didn’t play senior year), was a manager for basketball and volleyball, and coached robotics. He didn’t have a ton of community service, but he coached and umpired Little League. He’s not a minority, but he is first-generation and qualifies for Pell Grants.
We started going through the steps, and I still remember struggling to find our first scholarship, feeling like I had no idea what I was doing. But we just stuck with it and followed the process. Their Facebook page is pretty helpful, and they send out a weekly list of scholarships. It might sound silly, but their app ended up being the tool I used the most.
If you go with Monica’s eBooks and Dave’s video course instead, it’ll cost a lot less. One big reason I preferred Dave for essay editing over The Scholarship System is that TSS only does one review for the price, while Dave will do multiple rounds of reviews.
You might think your essays are good, but they’re crucial to winning scholarships. Make sure you have someone review them. I’d review my son’s essays and think they were solid, but then we’d send them to Dave, and he’d catch things I missed.
Thank you for the detailed response! I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and anxious, especially with my mom pushing me to apply for scholarships right after the webinar, and I wasn’t sure if this was a scam or not. But I agree—knowledge is definitely power.
In your opinion, which of their resources helped the most? My mom emphasized the essay help they offer, but I honestly feel like I could tackle that on my own.