A new study from Sallie — the higher education company affiliated with Sallie Mae — found that 68% of Gen Z students use TikTok to search for scholarships at least occasionally. About 60% found scholarships they didn't know about through the platform. But 1 in 3 also encountered misleading content, including fake scholarships, inflated award amounts, and paid courses falsely claiming to "unlock" scholarship money.

How Gen Z Is Actually Finding Scholarships

The way students search for scholarships has shifted. Guidance counselors, scholarship databases, and financial aid nights still exist — but they're no longer the primary channel for many students.

A study conducted by the research firm Fractl on behalf of Sallie surveyed 274 U.S. college students and recent graduates about where they look for scholarship money. The findings tell a clear story about where student attention has migrated.

Among Gen Z respondents:

  • 68% used TikTok to search for scholarships at least occasionally
  • 22% searched TikTok at least once a week for scholarship opportunities
  • TikTok (22%) was a more common scholarship search tool than school guidance counselors (19%)
  • 60% found scholarships they hadn't heard of through TikTok
  • 9% won at least one scholarship they discovered on the platform

68%

That 9% win rate — roughly 1 in 11 students who searched — is real. TikTok is surfacing real scholarships that students find and apply for. The question isn't whether to use it. The question is how to use it without getting burned.

What Gen Z Trusts on TikTok (and Why That's a Problem)

When students did turn to TikTok for scholarship information, they trusted some creators more than others. According to the Sallie study, Gen Z respondents trusted current college students and recent graduates on TikTok more than any other type of creator — more than certified financial advisers, more than official scholarship organization accounts, and more than teachers or school staff.

That makes intuitive sense. A 20-year-old explaining how they won a $2,000 scholarship feels more credible and relatable than an organization's official account posting branded content.

The problem: current college students and recent graduates have no particular expertise in vetting scholarships. They can share what worked for them — which may be legitimate. They can also inadvertently share misinformation, or they can be paid promoters without fully disclosing it.

About 1 in 3 Gen Z students who used TikTok for scholarship searches reported encountering misleading content. This included promotions for scholarships that didn't exist, incorrect eligibility requirements, inflated award amounts, and advertisements for paid courses falsely promising to help students win scholarships. No legitimate scholarship requires you to pay to apply.

The Specific Scams to Watch For

The study identified several patterns in the misleading content students encountered:

Scholarships that don't exist. These look like real opportunities — named, dated, with an application link — but lead to dead ends or data-collection sites.

Inflated award amounts. A real $500 scholarship might be described as a $5,000 opportunity. Students apply, invest time writing an essay, and receive a fraction of what was promoted.

Paid "scholarship coaching" courses. This is the most common scam: a creator builds an audience around scholarship content, then sells a course or ebook claiming insider access to scholarships. Legitimate scholarship information is free. The databases, the applications, the deadlines — all of it is publicly available. You should never pay someone to help you access scholarships.

Eligibility bait-and-switch. A scholarship is promoted as available to "any college student" but turns out to require enrollment at a specific school, membership in a specific organization, or residency in a specific state.

How to Use TikTok Without Getting Fooled

TikTok can genuinely surface scholarships you wouldn't find through traditional searches. The merit scholarships guide covers how to identify and evaluate opportunities — the same vetting logic applies to anything you find on social media.

Here's a practical approach:

Use TikTok as a discovery layer, not a verification layer. If a scholarship looks interesting, leave TikTok. Find the official organization's website directly by searching the organization name plus "scholarship" in a separate browser. Confirm the scholarship exists, the deadline is current, and the award amount matches what was advertised.

Verify before you spend time on an essay. Writing a scholarship essay takes hours. Before you start, confirm: Does the scholarship organization have an official website with an actual application? Is the organization a registered nonprofit or institution? Is the deadline listed on the application page — not just in a TikTok caption?

Skip any content that involves payment. No legitimate scholarship asks you to buy a course, pay an application fee, or subscribe to anything. If a creator is pitching you a product alongside scholarship content, that's a signal to be skeptical of the scholarship information too.

Cross-reference with established scholarship databases. The scholarship deadlines calendar and college scholarships strategy guide can help you find verified opportunities. First-generation students should also check first-generation scholarships, which include many legitimate, lesser-known awards.

Only 27% of Gen Z students who used TikTok for scholarship searches said they always verify the information before applying. Being in that 27% is a competitive advantage — it means you're not wasting time on fake opportunities and not missing real ones because you got burned early and stopped looking.

The Emotional Trap

One finding from the Sallie study is worth taking seriously: 38% of students said TikTok made them feel like they were falling behind in their scholarship search.

That's a manufactured anxiety that hurts students. TikTok's algorithm surfaces content that keeps you watching — and content about someone else winning a big scholarship generates engagement, regardless of whether it's representative or accurate. Seeing a stream of posts about students winning $10,000 scholarships while you're still working on your first application can feel crushing.

The reality: scholarship applications are not a competition where you can see everyone else's entries. Most students don't talk about the rejections. The person who posted about winning $25,000 in scholarships may have applied to 60 scholarships to get there. You're not behind — you're just looking at a curated slice of results.

The Bottom Line

TikTok is a legitimate scholarship discovery tool with a real scam problem. The students who benefit from it are the ones who verify before they apply, never pay for access, and don't let the algorithm convince them the window has closed.

For a complete scholarship search strategy — one that doesn't depend on any single platform — the scholarship essay guide and the main scholarships page are the right starting points.

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Footnotes

  1. Fractl for Sallie. (2026, April). TikTok Made Me Apply: Inside Gen Z's Scholarship Search Habits. Sallie. https://www.sallie.com/research/inside-gen-z-scholarship-search ↩

  2. McKenzie, L. (2026, April 14). Students Turning to TikTok to Find Scholarships. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/financial-aid/2026/04/14/students-turning-tiktok-find-scholarships ↩