Even though you are not a Senior yet, you should begin your planning and preliminary scholarship search now. Check in with the Counselling Office /Career Center at your high school. Let the counselor know you are interested in going to college and in available scholarships. It's the old "squeaky wheel" idea...If they know you are seriously interested, they will usually watch out for you and give you extra help because of your initiative. This may give you an inside track on scholarship information. The next resource to check for is a local Community Foundation. Sometimes these serve specific towns or groups of towns. Sometimes they serve a county wide area. They often have scholarships that go unclaimed simply because people don't know to check with them. If you can't find a listing in the phonebook, try the Chamber of Commerce, United Way and your local Volunteer Center. One of those should know if there is a Community Foundation serving your area and how to contact them. Next resource to try is local service clubs and organizations: Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, Elks, Zonta, Junior League, Soroptomist, Altrusa, YWCA, Panhellenic Associations, etc. Many of these organizations generally give small scholarships. All have different criteria so the earlier you start checking with them the better. Check your local library Resource Section for directories of nationally available scholarships. These tend to be very specific in nature. You should also check with Universities / Colleges you are thinking about attending. The Financial Aid Office might be able to suggest local sources for scholarships and might even have some institutional scholarships you can apply for. Last but not least is doing a scholarship search on the internet. One word of caution. Investigate the source ESPECIALLY if they charge a fee for their scholarship search and referral services. There are many, many free resources and with a little effort you can find them. This doesn't necessarily guarantee a scholarship but it hasn't cost you much but some time and maybe some stamps and phone calls to do the research.