Frequently Asked Questions

Fastweb is the premier online resource when it comes to paying for and preparing for school. We have scholarships for every type of student from the high school freshmen to the returning adult.

We've been around for over 15 years and have earned a reputation as a leading scholarship search provider. We not only find scholarships but offer our members information on financial aid, jobs and internships, student life and more.

Anyone who is at least 13 years of age can become a member of Fastweb for free.

Absolutely. There is no charge to use Fastweb or to access any of the information we provide.

We're committed to providing a quality scholarship matching service while at the same time protecting our members. Our service remains free for students because we allow colleges and marketing partners to reach students. However, during the registration process, you can indicate whether or not you would like to be reached by these third parties. Even if you decline, Fastweb is still free.

View Fastweb's complete Privacy Policy here.

No. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is not related to Fastweb or our scholarship search functionality, although we do recommend you fill it out. To fill out the FAFSA form or find out more information about the FAFSA, visit their website at fafsa.ed.gov or call 1-800-4-FED-AID.

Fastweb does not have Personal Identification Number (PIN) information on file. You may access or create your PIN at the Department of Education's PIN website at pin.ed.gov.

When you register for Fastweb and complete your online profile, data is collected that is used to match you to scholarships we have in our database. The information we ask for pertains to scholarships in our database, by providing us with this information we can rule out any scholarships that you don't qualify for and match you with ones that you do.

Ah yes, the all important question! While there is no magic answer to winning scholarships, we do have articles with lots of advice from past winners - check them out here. Applying for scholarships is a numbers game. The more scholarships you apply for, the better your chances of winning. Don't become discouraged if you've applied for 10, 15, even 30 scholarships without hearing anything back. Stay focused on what's important to you and keep applying.

If you are chosen as a scholarship winner, the scholarship sponsor will contact you directly, usually via phone call, letter, or email. You won't hear from us at Fastweb on whether you have won a scholarship or not.

If you're trying to apply for a specific scholarship and have questions, you'll need to contact the actual scholarship sponsor. Try visiting their website which we'll provide for you on the Scholarship Details page on Fastweb.

If your scholarship fits with our outlined Scholarship Provider Guidelines found here, and you'd like to see it hosted on Fastweb, please send an email to scholarships@fastweb.com.

We've operated successfully for 15 years, and in that time, developed trusting relationships with numerous scholarship sponsors. We also take many steps to insure scholarship legitimacy, which includes verifying that all contact information is accurate/functional, testing the sponsor's websites, as well as researching the sponsor thoroughly.

While our dedicated teams of researchers do their best to confirm the legitimacy and legality of each scholarship hosted on our site, be aware that Fastweb does not exercise control over the information, products, services or privacy policies of third party companies accessible through our site.

We encourage you to read the privacy policies of these third parties so you can understand how they collect, use, and share your information.

On your scholarship matches page you'll see a list of scholarships we've matched you to based on the information in your profile. To learn more about a scholarship, including how to apply, click the name of the scholarship and you'll be taken to a Scholarships Details page. There we'll provide a website address to more information or instructions on how to apply.

Remember that while Fastweb hosts a slew of scholarships on our site we don't actually have anything to do with the scholarship award process for particular scholarships nor can we provide any additional information on any scholarship. To find out more about a scholarship you're interested in, check out the scholarships provider's website.

You can add up to five colleges in the college field of your profile. Doing this will show you scholarships to all schools you may be considering.

Fill out the profile with all of your son or daughter's information (test scores, year they graduated, where they are looking to go to college and so on).

We ask that each Fastweb member have a unique email address and password in order to search our database for individually tailored information. For this reason, you may not register more than one person under the same e-mail address.

To create multiple accounts, you'll need a unique email address for each profile you wish to create.

Currently, our site does not allow international students or those who live in U.S. territories, who do not have a U.S. address to register on our site.

However, if you are interested in studying in the U.S. as an international student, you will be able to create a Fastweb profile by providing the address of the school in the U.S. you are interested in attending in the address field of registration. If you have not taken the PSAT, SAT or ACT, you can leave those fields blank. They are not necessary to complete your profile.

If you do not have a traditional American grade point average, you will need to approximate your unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale and answer accordingly.

You may leave the phone number field blank. It is not needed to complete the Fastweb profile.

For more information on studying in the U.S. as an international student, please visit www.edupass.org.

Please note that if you are not planning to study in the United States or are unable to provide a U.S. address when registering, you will not be able to register on Fastweb.

If you want to get your profile to 100% check all areas of your profile and be sure they're filled out. For example the parent's activities section is often something students forget to fill out. The more information you give us, the better we can match you to scholarships you may qualify for.

When registering for Fastweb, our intended major and college of interest fields have dropdown menus that appear whenever you begin typing in your major or college. If a dropdown menu is not appearing, you may need to delete your cookies, update your Internet Browser or enable JavaScript.

Also, if the major or college you are looking for does not appear in a dropdown it is because we do not have scholarships in our database for that particular major or college - you will have to pick something else related. Even if your school is not listed, you'll still be matched with national as well as local and regional scholarships. Finally, please only type in the major and not “Bachelors of Science” or “Master's degree” before the major.

When we find a scholarship that fits you, we'll let you know by email. You can sign up to receive these notifications by going to “My Profile” in the top right of Fastweb.com, then click on the “My Account” tab and then click “Subscriptions.” Check all the email options you would like to receive.

To make sure you're getting these emails, scholarship deadline warnings and our weekly newsletter add webmaster@fastweb.com to your email contacts. This will help keep these important emails out of the spam folder.

Whether you've been out of school for a few years or a few decades, Fastweb's database has scholarships available for students returning to school.

You may find that some of the questions in the profile are directed to younger students. If you run across a question that you don't know how to answer because of your returning status, check out these tips that help you to complete your profile: -Many students returning to college do not recall their GPA the last time they were enrolled. For Fastweb purposes, an estimation of your last GPA is acceptable.

• You can leave any test score field blank. They are not needed to complete your profile.
• For 'year in school' please enter the year (e.g. junior in college) you were the last time you were enrolled. If you have taken classes at multiple schools or dropped out and don't remember what year you were, you may estimate your year in school to the best of you ability.
• If you aren't enrolled in a college yet, and if you also don't know what you will be studying, you may enter your potential college and major choices.
• If you are 24 years of age or older, you are considered an independent student. You do not need to include your parent's information; instead, please enter your own 'head of household' information.

If you are unsure of your username, you can always use the email address that is associated with your account in place of your username to login to your Fastweb account.

No problem, just visit this page and you can reset your password yourself. After filling out all fields hit submit and we'll send you an email confirming you want to reset this password, once confirmed you're all set with a new password.