Post-Secondary Planning

Create a Scholarship Match Profile

A Scholarship Match Profile allows SchooLinks to match or recommend scholarships that match your eligibility and interests. The more information you provide, the more accurate your scholarship matches will be.

There are three sections of the Match Profile:

1. Eligibility

   Enter details about yourself to determine your scholarship eligibility
    

2. Interests

   Select career clusters you're interested in and add keywords related to your academic and extracurricular achievements and pursuits
    

3. Colleges

   Choose colleges you’re interested in to get matched with college-specific scholarships
    

4. Click View Matches after each section to go back to the Scholarship Matching Dashboard

5. View and Sort Matches

   By default, view your scholarships by match score (1-100) according to how well the scholarship matches your profile. You can also sort your matches by the deadline and dollar amount or, search for scholarships by title, provider, or url
    

6. View Scholarship Details

   Click on a scholarship to view the scholarship details, including the description, the scholarship deadline, and the award amount.
    

7. Favorite and Apply for Scholarships

   Click Apply to go to the scholarship application site (outside of SchooLinks)
    

8. You can also Favorite the scholarship so that it will show in your Favorites tab and Mark it as Applied to indicate which scholarships you have applied for.

The Plano ISD Seniors will be required to report all scholarships they have received in the SchooLinks platform. This information is crucial as it will be used for various purposes, including the recognition of students during campus award ceremonies. Additionally, the total scholarship amounts reported in SchooLinks will be aggregated to determine the overall scholarship awards for each campus. This helps the district track the achievements of its students and highlights the financial support students have earned. By reporting all scholarship amounts, students ensure that their accomplishments are accurately reflected and considered during events and ceremonies.👉 Watch a video here of the steps below 

To access the area you will enter your scholarships log into SchooLinks from your webdesk.  Click College on the side navigation bar, then select College Financing.

College Award Letters

A College Award Letter is an official document sent by a college that outlines the financial aid you’ve been offered. This can include grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities, and loans, along with the total cost of attendance.

The College Award Letter section of the College Financing tool allows you to upload and track these letters for each college you’ve applied to and have been admitted to.

Important Note: In order to add a College Award Letter, you must first mark the college as accepted in the College Application Manager, learn how to do so here 👉 Add College Application Results

To add a College Award Letter

Click the Actual Cost tab to view the list of colleges you have been accepted into. Click the tile of the college to which you want to add a college award letter

Upload your College Award Letter directly from your computer or by taking a photo from your phone. Click Next Step.

You will then be guided through the process of entering the gifted aid you will be receiving, the cost of attendance, and offered loans. After filling out all the cost information you'll see the total net cost to attend and the unmet gap. Click Finish to save.

Now you will be able to compare the actual cost of each college you have been accepted to!

Third-Party Scholarships

The Third-Party Scholarships section of the College Financing tool lets you add and update the status of scholarships you apply for. These scholarships come from external organizations—like companies, nonprofits, or foundations—rather than specific colleges or the government.

*Note: Only add scholarships that can be used at any college here. If a scholarship is tied to a specific college, you’ll need to add it as an Award Letter as explained in the next section.

To add a new scholarship:

Click the pencil icon on the Third-Party Scholarship tile

Click +Add Scholarship

Select Third-Party Scholarship and in the required scholarship details:

Scholarship Name & Provider (Required)

Scholarship Category (Optional)

Scholarship Status (Required)

• Awaiting Results
• Not Awarded
• Offered
• Accepted

If you select Offered or Accepted, you’ll be prompted to:

Add the scholarship amount

Specify the number of years you’ll receive the scholarship

Upload the scholarship award letter

Click Save scholarship when finished

Click +Add Scholarship to add additional scholarships as needed.