Christopher Gray, 21, a Drexel University junior and CEO/Founder of Scholly, has found a way to make finding those scholarships easier.
Gray himself has been very successful in finding scholarship funds. He is known as the “Million-Dollar Scholar” after being awarded $1.3 million in scholarships.
Over the past three years, Gray has also helped other families manually scour through databases, and figured, “Hey, I need something that can help. There has to be a faster way.”
Gray developed the answer in the form of Scholly, an app that uses eight specific parameters, like state, GPA, or race, to instantly filter through a deep directory of scholarships available for the prospective student.
“It’s extremely simple,” says Gray and that ultimately was the goal.
“The fact that it’s on the mobile (phone) really hits the audience,” says Soham Bhonsle, 21, a Scholly user and Drexel University senior. “It serves the need of its time. We want it on the go.”
Nicholas Pirollo, chief technological officer for Scholly, also offers that apps optimize searches compared to standard websites because they are more tailored to specific needs.
A recent study, conducted by Sallie Mae, shows that 39% of families used scholarship funds to pay for college during the 2012-2013 academic year and Scholly connects users with relevant scholarships in about five minutes. Scholly’s database is updated monthly to remove scholarships that are no longer available, add scholarships, and refresh deadlines.
There is money out there to go to school. Scholly has more than 10,000 downloads of the $0.99 app found in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Scholly’s costs are intentionally positioned at an affordable price to serve more people that need it and boast a potential big payoff.
“Pay 99 cents and you may get $5,000 or $6,000 in scholarships.”
Scholly helps put the power of funding your education in your hands.
