In late March 2026, the scholarship website Going Merry shut down, coming as a shock to students who used the website as a place to find and track financial support for college and tech school.
Without Going Merry to search for scholarships, students are at risk of falling for free, easy no-essay scholarships that are “guaranteed wins.” To avoid some of these scams, some of the major scholarship hubs that students can turn to are Fastweb.com, Big Future and Scholarship.com; each website has its positives and negatives.
Fastweb.com, like Going Merry, allows students to make a profile that is used to help find scholarships. It functions as a search engine, so once you find a scholarship, you are sent to an external website to complete the application.
Going Merry had this feature, but in some cases would allow you to complete the scholarship on their website. Similar to Going Merry, when you apply for a scholarship, Fastweb.com will automatically save it to be accessed later. The biggest difference between the two is when you apply for a scholarship and the results. Going Merry would notify you of the outcome while Fastweb.com will not.
Big Future is another scholarship hub that students can utilize in place of Going Merry. Big Future is a scholarship website funded by the College Board, which saves students the trouble of making a profile.
However, unlike Fastweb.com and Going Merry, Big Future doesn’t have personalized matchmaking. Instead, it gives users the ability to apply filters to narrow down the scholarship search. This works as a disadvantage to students as it excludes scholarships where if one factor of the student’s filters are not present it will not show up as an option, even if the student is fully eligible.
Lastly, students can use Scholarship.com. Scholarship.com is one of the first databases students will find when looking for scholarships. Like Going Merry, it allows students to make a profile that will let them add hobbies and interests, which can help them find more personalized scholarships. However, one of the biggest downsides to this website is that it is plagued with advertisements and random pop-up quizzes that can discourage students from applying.
With the Going Merry shutdown, students are left with one less scholarship hub, but by using these other websites and asking AVID teachers for additional guidance, students can still easily find and apply to scholarships.
