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Three grand can come in pretty handy for a lot of things but it’s especially vital for someone trying to figure out how to pay for college. If you’re a high school or home school senior, check out our Scholarship of the Week – the Sam Walton Community Scholarship – to ease three thousand financial worries.

• Be a graduating high school senior home school senior
• Have at least a 2.5 cumulative high school GPA, and have taken either the ACT or SAT standardized tests
• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident of the United States
• Not be a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. employee or dependent of an employee
• Demonstrate financial need by required documents
• Plan to enroll in a two- or four-year U.S. college or university full-time undergraduate course of study (at least 12 college credit hours) in the fall semester. (The institution must be accredited and listed on the official website of the U.S. Department of Education with the exception of military academies; all school transfers are subject to accreditation approval.)

For more information on this college scholarship and countless others, try our free scholarship search today!

Are you a girl who demonstrates budding entrepreneurship, is taking the first steps toward financial independence or is making a difference in your community? If so, the Guardian Girls Going Places Entrepreneurship Award Program is right up your alley.

The Girls Going Places Entrepreneurship Award Program is an annual initiative designed by the Guardian Life Insurance Company to recognize the enterprising spirit of girls ages 12 to 18. Every year, prizes totaling $30,000 are granted to three top winners and 12 finalists to further their entrepreneurial pursuits or use to fund their college educations.

If this sounds like the scholarship for you, apply now or, if you’re interested in finding other scholarship opportunities to suit your unique situation, complete a free scholarship search today!

Wouldn’t it be great if one of your favorite stores put money into your wallet instead of taking it out? I’d say so and so would Best Buy: Through February 16th, in fact, the electronics giant is accepting applications for its @15 Scholarships.

Best Buy @15 Scholarships are available to current high school students in grades 9 through 12 who plan to enroll in a full-time undergraduate course of study at an accredited two- or four-year college or university or vocational-technical school in the Unites States. A total of 1,000 students will each receive $1,000 scholarships. So if you’re a high school student who plans to attend college, has solid grades and is involved in community service or work experience, you'll want to check out this award.

For more information about this opportunity, click here or try our free scholarship search to find other scholarships to help you pay for school.

Since its creation in 2004, Facebook has revolutionized the way college students (and, later, the world) communicate online. It’s a piazza for nearly everything (vacation photos, snarky status updates, baby announcements, study groups, ex stalking, etc.) and gives each user a way to express themselves. One feature in particular – the "Like" button – shows exactly what comments, movies and brands are most favored so we figured why not let those who like Scholarships.com earn money for college? And thus, the "You Like Me...You Really Like Me" Facebook Scholarship was born!

The "You Like Me...You Really Like Me" Facebook Scholarship will go to the Scholarships.com fan that is making the best use of our website’s many resources as determined by comments on our Facebook page. Love our scholarship search? Tell us why! Is our financial aid info really helping you out? Send us an example! Think our college prep section is the best? Give us a shout out!

To apply, you must:

1. "Like" Scholarships.com on Facebook.
2. Post on our wall how Scholarships.com is helping you with your scholarship search.

Check out our Facebook page for more details. The deadline to “like” and comment is March 31st so there’s plenty of time left to apply. Can’t wait to see why YOU like Scholarships.com!

Applying for scholarships requires hard work, creativity and time...not boatloads of cash, frustration and empty promises. Each year, however, students are duped into ponying up exorbitant application fees for scholarships they aren’t even guaranteed to win. This is just plain WRONG, people – scholarships are supposed to be free money for college! – and while we’re betting you’ve already checked out our pages on scholarship scam prevention, the Washington Post recently published some refresher info:

• Filling out the FAFSA is 100-percent free and you can do it either online or on paper. If you would like to fill it out online, be sure your search terms are correct: A seemingly small typo like "FASFA" can direct you to sites that ask you to pay to file...and the forms they have are sometimes the wrong ones.
• It's legal for for-profit companies to charge for providing scholarship information but it's illegal for them to collect fees but never provide the information, misrepresent themselves as government officials or guarantee they'll get the student full funding for college.
• Voice any concerns about an organization to a high school or college counselor; they've been there and done that and can point you to the truth.
• If you are alerted that you're a finalist for a contest you've never entered or if credit card/banking information is requested online, go no further unless you are positive the organization is legit.
• Don't give in to anything branded as a "limited time offer" or "exclusive opportunity." They're just high-pressure sales tactics.
• Investigate the success stories presented at seminars. These so-called "satisfied customers" could have been paid to give glowing recommendations so ask for a list of at least three local families who used the service and contact them directly to make sure the organization delivered on its promises.
• If you do find a legitimate organization that requires payment, get in writing how much the service costs, what exactly the company will do and the refund policy.

College is expensive enough so save those application fees for books and other college expenses: All Scholarships.com’s services – from the scholarship search and college matchmaker to financial aid information and college preparation tips – are available completely free of charge. You’re welcome!

Like many students, I read "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" when I was in school. I was both saddened and moved upon completion: Her writing revealed an intelligent, charming person destined for great things – potential that was never realized because of Adolf Hitler’s corrupt agenda. Anne would be turning 82 this June 12th and to celebrate her short yet meaningful life, the Anne Frank Center USA is offering their annual Anne Frank Outstanding Scholarship Award, which grants $10,000 to one deserving student.

Scholarship applicants must be graduating high school seniors who are community leaders and have been accepted to a four-year college. Applicants are required to write a 1,000-word essay describing contributions they have made to their community and how their goals are inspired by Anne Frank. The essay should relate a single personal experience that demonstrates a commitment to social justice. The scholarship committee strongly recommends that applicants read “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” and include in their essay how themes from the diary relate to their own life experience. Applicants are also required to provide two letters of recommendation on letterhead from supporting sponsors who are personally familiar with the applicant's contributions but are not parents or family members. All application materials must be postmarked by January 31st; the winner will be announced on March 28th.

To learn more about this scholarship, visit the Anne Frank Center USA's website; additional scholarship opportunities can be found by conducting a free Scholarships.com scholarship search.

Batman and Robin. The Golden Girls. The Situation and his abs. What do they all have in common? I can think of a few things but at the top of the list is definitely friendship. Awwwwwww...and if they were Scholarships.com users trying to find money for college, the Scholarships.com "Tell A Friend" $1,000 Sweepstakes would be worthy of a fist pump.

As a member of Scholarships.com, you could win cash prizes just for helping us spread the word about our free college scholarship search. All you have to do is enter up to ten of your friends’ names and e-mail addresses. If they join the site, you’ll both be eligible for the $1,000 sweepstakes. Easy as Pi!

Remember, the more friends you refer, the more entries you’ll get until the March 31st deadline. For more information, visit our Tell A Friend page and for additional scholarship opportunities, conduct a free scholarship search.

There’s nothing I enjoy more than curling up with a good book...unless doing so could be worth $10,000. Too bad I’m long graduated because I’d be applying for this Scholarship of the Week in a second!

The Fountainhead Essay Contest, offered by the Ayn Rand Institute, is open to high school juniors and seniors with a love of literature and flair for writing. Each applicant is required to read Rand’s novel of the same name then craft an essay of 800 to 1,600 words in response to one of three prompts. There will be 236 college scholarships distributed – one $10,000 first-prize award, five $2,000 second-prize awards, 10 $1,000 third-prize awards, 45 $100 finalist awards and 175 $50 semifinalist awards – to essay writers demonstrating an outstanding grasp of the philosophic meaning of The Fountainhead.

All materials must be submitted by April 26th (just over two weeks from today) so if you are interested in this scholarship opportunity, you still have plenty of time to apply. For more information on this and other scholarship awards, conduct a free scholarship search on our site today!

Winning scholarship money is great but doing so without having to meet astronomical word counts and double-digit page requirements is even better. That’s why we’ve launched the Short and Tweet Scholarship, where you could win $1,000 for writing a 140-characters Twitter post!

In addition to the 2.7 million scholarships already in our database, we’ve created the Short and Tweet Twitter Scholarship, which rewards students for doing something they do every day: communicate online. To enter, simply log on to Twitter (create an account if you don’t already have one), follow us, then @reply us and explain what an extra $1,000 for college would mean to you as creatively and meaningfully as possible.

That’s it. No lengthy essay. No paperwork. Just your thoughts, in real time. Good luck!

Step 1: Follow Scholarships.com on Twitter.

Step 2: @reply us with a tweet answering the question “What would an extra $1,000 for college mean to you?” Once you do this, you are automatically entered to win a $1,000 scholarship.

Step 3: You may enter as many times as you want but please limit your tweets to a reasonable amount per day. Each tweet will be a stand-alone entry and tweets that are submitted by non-followers, exceed 140 characters, do not include @Scholarshipscom or are submitted after the May 31st deadline will not be considered. From there, the Scholarships.com Team will determine which comment is most deserving of the award.

To learn more about this scholarship, click here; the official rules can be viewed here.

This scholarship competition is offered by Scholarships.com and is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Twitter.

Were you ever the new kid in class? What about the new kid in class in an unfamiliar country or culture? If this sounds like you, apply for our Scholarship of the Week: Clements International’s Expat Youth Scholarship!

This unique contest is for expat students who spend their childhoods moving between different countries and cultures. Simply create a two- to three-minute video explaining your favorite thing about your host country and its culture (if you have lived abroad in more than one country, please only select one), upload your video to YouTube then visit Clements International’s website to submit your entry by the May 13th deadline.

For more information on this and other scholarship opportunities, complete a free scholarship search today!