An App to Find Scholarships

It's no secret that the cost of higher education, especially quality health care education, is expensive. It seems to be getting more expensive all the time. A slow economy, along with rising costs, is lessening parents' abilities to pay for college out-of-pocket. More households are becoming more reliant on scholarships to finance post-secondary education.

Thirty-nine percent of families used scholarship funds to pay for college in 2012-13, based on data from a recent Sallie Mae study. Many of those undoubtedly are students pursuing their health care education from institutions such as Concorde. There's an app, called Scholly, that makes finding that scholarship money easier and a health care education more attainable.

"It's extremely simple," Christopher Gray, the founder and CEO of Scholly, said in an article in USA Today in August of 2013. "That was the goal."

Eight parameters for finding money

Gray was dubbed the "Million-Dollar Scholar" for being awarded $1.3 million in scholarships during his college career at Drexel University, but has spent the past several years helping others find money for education, including health care education. Manually searching through untailored databases for each student was tedious and inefficient.

Gray decided to create a faster way. Scholly uses eight parameters - such as state, race, GPA or major - to instantly filter listings into a comprehensive directory of scholarships. Users can quickly sift through the tailored results, save a list of scholarships and export it to themselves via email in order to apply online.

"People wanted something quick," Gray said in the USA Today article. "They wanted something new."

Scholly doesn't require users to sign up by entering personal information. The app connects users with scholarships relevant to them in about five minutes, according to Nicholas Pirollo, chief technological officer for Scholly.

Scholarships constantly updated

Most of the scholarships Gray found during his search for funds were for freshmen entering college, not current or returning undergraduates and graduate students. The app's database is updated monthly to add scholarships, refresh deadlines and remove scholarships no longer available."

"We made this because it is something we really could have used going to school."

Gray said his goal for Scholly was to be a sustainable business that produced affordable and helpful content.

"Just imagine you create something, and some student... is being helped by it," he said. "It's been a great experience. And it's been very impactful to me."

Helping pay for a health care education

Many students work with Concorde Financial Aid representatives to secure funding to pay for school. Much of this funding comes in the form of federal student loans and/or Concorde-sponsored scholarships. However, these Financial Aid associates also are fully prepared to help you in your search for scholarship dollars. Perhaps Scholly could be the right move for you!