How we estimate the number of scholarships
This is a modelled estimate, not a count — nobody has counted these, which is rather the point of the product. It multiplies the number of organisations of each kind by how many we think run scholarships, and how many each awards. The organisation counts marked 'published' come from federal statistics. The ones marked 'our estimate' are ours, and we've said which is which. Every participation rate and awards-per-organisation figure is set deliberately low, and the headline is rounded down from the model's own total. We show the workings so you can disagree with them.
Bottom line
Model total: 284,167. Published figure: 250,000+, rounded down to the nearest 50,000 so the number we print sits well below what the model produces.
74% of this estimate rests on published federal counts. That's a stronger claim than the number itself.
| Category | Organisations | Basis | Share with awards | Awards each | Estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Public high schools Assumes 4 in 5 hold a local awards night and average six donor-funded awards — memorial funds, PTA, booster clubs, local businesses. Six is a floor; large schools run dozens. | 23,882 23,882 public high schools of 26,727 total (2025 US school counts, NCES-derived) | published | 80% | 6 | 114,633 |
Colleges and universities Departmental, endowed and foundation awards requiring a separate application. Excludes automatic merit aid, which needs no application. | 3,542 3,542 degree-granting postsecondary institutions with first-year undergraduates (NCES, AY 2021–22) | published | 90% | 30 | 95,634 |
Community foundations Most administer donor-advised scholarship funds. Twenty each is a floor — the largest administer several hundred. | 900 Approximately 900 community foundations operate in the US | our estimate | 85% | 20 | 15,300 |
Civic and fraternal clubs One club in four running one award. | 40,000 Combined US chapters: Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Elks, Moose, Knights of Columbus, Odd Fellows, Eagles | our estimate | 25% | 1.2 | 12,000 |
Faith congregations Two percent is deliberately very low. Congregational education funds are common and almost never appear online, so we'd rather understate a category we can't observe. | 350,000 Roughly 350,000 religious congregations in the US | our estimate | 2% | 1.2 | 8,400 |
Professional and trade associations State chapters usually run their own awards; counting only national bodies understates this materially. | 7,000 National associations, excluding their state chapters | our estimate | 40% | 2.5 | 7,000 |
Agricultural organisations FFA alone has thousands of chapters, many with a local award. | 12,000 County farm bureaus, FFA chapters, 4-H programmes, commodity boards, breed associations, rural electric co-operatives | our estimate | 30% | 1.5 | 5,400 |
Small and family foundations Excludes the large national foundations, which are widely listed. | 12,000 Private and family foundations with an education purpose | our estimate | 30% | 1.5 | 5,400 |
Employers with education programmes Covers employee and dependent awards. These sit behind staff portals and are close to invisible to search. | 6,000 Large employers, hospital systems and school districts | our estimate | 55% | 1.5 | 4,950 |
Dollars for Scholars chapters Chapter-administered local awards; this is their entire purpose. | 1,000 Scholarship America affiliate chapters | our estimate | 90% | 4 | 3,600 |
Heritage and community organisations Member and community awards. | 6,000 Cultural centres, heritage societies, community associations | our estimate | 40% | 1.5 | 3,600 |
Veterans organisations Post-level awards for members' families. | 18,000 VFW and American Legion posts, plus national programmes | our estimate | 15% | 1.2 | 3,240 |
Credit unions and community banks Member and service-area awards. | 8,700 US credit unions and community banks | our estimate | 25% | 1.2 | 2,610 |
Union locals and national funds Ten percent is low. Education trusts are common at local level and essentially unsearchable. | 20,000 Local unions plus national education trusts | our estimate | 10% | 1.2 | 2,400 |
What's not counted
Not counted: federal and state aid programmes, automatic merit awards that require no application, and the large national essay contests. We leave the national contests out on purpose — they're the ones everyone already finds, and including them would inflate this number using exactly the awards we tell students to deprioritise.
Sources
Think an assumption is wrong? Tell us at undergrove@undergrovescholar.com. We'd rather publish a corrected number than a flattering one.
Time
Time is the smaller effect. Ten applications to awards with thirty applicants and ten to awards with thirty thousand are very different pools — that's the kind of context we surface, alongside relevance and eligibility.
We built a stage-by-stage time model here and decided not to publish the number it produces. A disclosed methodology explains an estimate; it doesn't substantiate a performance claim the way real usage data would. We'll publish a time figure once we have actual users to measure it from, not before.