Use Magic Words

There are good words, bad words, and then there are magic words. What are magic words?

Magic words are words you use in your Web searches that are used less conversationally, and so when you search for scholarships with those terms, you'll probably get better results. They're synonyms, but they're very focused synonyms.

For example, one of the most powerful words in scholarship search is the word foundation. Scholarships are most often administered by foundations, but rarely do people ever bring up the sponsoring foundation conversationally in a Web page, blog post, or other online discussion, so when you search for scholarships with the word foundation in your search, you'll be more likely to find the awarding foundation.

Google without magic keywords

Here's the same search with some magic words. Note that all the listings are now scholarships you can apply for.

Google with magic keywords

Magic words become very important when you have relatively broad topics you're searching for. What are some of the most useful magic words you can use in your scholarship search?

* scholarship/scholarships - yes, they are different, singular and plural - you should assume from here on that any term which appears in singular should also be tried plural, and vice versa.
* grant
* financial aid
* endowment
* foundation
* fellowship
* honorarium
* trust
* application
* deadline
* pdf

For example, if you are searching for a music scholarship, these searches would give you different, but possibly equally useful results:

* music scholarship
* music scholarships
* music scholarship application
* music scholarship deadline
* music scholarship grant

Take your scholarship search terms from the previous steps and try variations on themes to find additional, possibly more targeted scholarships. You can also combine geographical words into your searches to make them even more targeted, such as:

* Boston music scholarship
* Boston music scholarships

The more refined and detailed you can make your searches, the higher quality your results will likely be. You can even add multiple terms together:

* Boston music scholarship application deadline
* Boston music scholarships foundation PDF deadline