Niche Scholarship Review (Is It Legit?)

In order for students to pay for college, they rely on financial options provided by companies who offer assistance. That’s where scholarship websites come into play. These websites often offer their own scholarships as well as connect students with other scholarships options.

Niche is one of those websites. They have popular scholarship opportunities for both high school and prospective college students. The most popular feature of their scholarship is that it doesn’t require an essay.

For students and parents who wonder is Niche scholarship legit, this Niche scholarship review is aimed to answer questions as well as definitively say whether or not it is truly legitimate.

What is Niche?

Niche was formerly known as College Prowler but has transformed into a data-driven website that uses crowdsourcing to build their community data directory. It’s an online destination for people who would like to learn more about a particular area in the United States.

The site contains information on neighborhoods, schools, universities, and workplaces. When people are looking for a place to live and want to know more about the schools and jobs in that area, Niche can provide that information.

The company is currently based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They have aggregated information from individuals from around the country who provide details on their community. The site is ever growing and currently has 100 million ratings and reviews, 200,000 profiles on neighborhoods and schools and has reached over 500 million users.

Related: FastWeb Scholarships Review

College students are able to review and rate their experience. They can also research the college they are interested in attending. Niche has a section dedicated to ranking each college by major, state, academics, housing, admissions, and students.

Niche hosts a scholarship search engine and matching service. There is a directory of scholarships listed and to the left of the page, students are able to search for scholarships based on different categories. This can include major, current grade level, race and location. When you select your preference, you get up to four pages with a list of scholarships.

Some awards vary, but most are from $500 to $10,000.

We Like Niche Because…

Students can become a member of the website to be matched with a scholarship. By entering their information, they are able to have scholarships listed based on all of the qualities they’ve entered, which will determine their eligibility. This includes race, age, current grade level and location.

The website is easy to navigate. Once you’ve chosen the parameters of your scholarship search, you will see a list of all of the scholarships available in that specific category.

Some of the scholarships on that list come from outside Niche, such as the Coca-Cola Community College Academic Team and Burger King Scholars. When you select one of these scholarships, you will be directed to an outside source to apply for that scholarship.

The scholarships offered directly from Niche are easy to apply for. One of the popular scholarships on this website includes the $2,000 No Essay Scholarship. The website contains 16 scholarships on this page and they are simple, quick and easy to fill out and submit. Their scholarships do not require a minimum GPA, letter of recommendation or essay.

They have a monthly scholarship. If a student doesn’t receive one this month, they can try their luck again the following month. The same rules apply to the other No Essay Scholarships.

The website is free to use when students sign up. Plus, they are able to get updates from the site. In addition to scholarships, students can learn about the schools of their choice.

Niche has specific scholarships for high school students. High school students of all grade levels are able to apply to win a $500 scholarship. This is the same as the other essays. It does not have any additional requirements.

Undergraduate, Graduate, and Community College students are also awarded $500. The same amount is given to each entrant of these individual majors: Art, Nursing, Culinary and Beauty School students.

Things We Don’t Like About Niche

Niche has third party partners and affiliates. When you sign up for the website, there is a box at the bottom of the form. It says to click here to receive updates. According to their privacy policy and another Niche scholarship review, they do share the information you’ve entered with these partners. This can lead to more emails from companies, schools and other websites. Students can opt out later.

The scholarship process requires more action for less of a chance to win. Though the scholarship application process is easy, they only offer one per applicant. The scholarship process still requires some action. For instance, students still have to create an account to apply.

They might also have to fill out a survey about their home, school or local community. Even though they perform these actions, there is still a big chance they won’t win the scholarship.

For the other scholarships offered by outside sources, they can be found on any site. It’s great to have all of this information on one site, however, they can be found on any scholarship website. When students choose the scholarship they want to apply on found on the Niche website, they are redirected to another website to fill out the information and are informed by that company alone whether or not they have received an award.

The process appears simple and worry-free, but it’s not. There are still steps involved. There are slim chances to win. And your information will likely be shared with third party affiliates. And if you find another scholarship through their easy to use a search engine or create an account to be matched, you’ll still have to visit another site and this information can be found anywhere.

What Students Say About Niche

Is Niche scholarship legit? Online Niche scholarship review writers indicate that the website is legitimate. Though it comes with disadvantages and appears similar to other scholarship websites, students will find it useful for their scholarship search.

Niche was featured on USA Today’s list of the 10 best sites to search for scholarships. The article describes how Niche can benefit students in their scholarship search. It also gives Niche points for being easy to use and for having scholarships based on individual student interests.

A Niche scholarship review was featured on the popular blog The Penny Hoarder. The bloggers search for and review legitimate sources that can save readers money. In the cheery blog post, she informed readers on how this particular scholarship is easy to apply for and that applicants can apply each month for a chance to win.

Students on a College Confidential forum post say it might not be worth signing up. While one student on this forum said that the website has worked for him and assisted him in finding two outside scholarships, two other students informed him that it is renamed and rebranded website that will do the same as any other scholarship website.

Under the Scholarships subreddit, posters gave mixed reviews when asked if Niche and similar sites were worth the effort. One poster said they won a scholarship from Niche and considers it a good website. Another poster on the same subreddit topic said that they tried Niche but had no success and received a lot of emails after signing up.

Conclusion

This Niche scholarship review explored the legitimacy of the process and the scholarship award offered by this company. While scholarship websites similar to Niche exist, the website still has great qualities as a scholarship search tool. It is also a great resource for students who want to learn more about the colleges they are interested in.

Based on the reviews and its recommendations from popular websites and blogs, it is a legitimate site. Signing up might fill your email inbox with more messages than you wanted, but it is a quick and easy way to win a scholarship.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the website or any details of this Niche scholarship review. If you’ve found this Niche scholarship review helpful or have any experience with Niche’s scholarship website, please share your experience.