Christopher Gray got his scholarships the old fashioned way – without a scholarship app. He did manage to amass over $1.6 million in scholarship monies to attend Drexel University and he needed every penny of it; he wasn’t born into money. What he learned while getting all that cash for college was that there are a lot of scholarships available and many go unclaimed because people just don’t know about them. That’s why he created Scholly.
Scholly is a curated scholarship app: Gray and his team find and vet every scholarship on the Scholly platform, making for a thorough and reliable database. Prospective students simply download the scholarship app, which costs 99 cents, and enter their individual criteria and needs. Scholly matches appropriate scholarships according to the student’s information and even helps guide students through the application process.
Gray pitches Scholly to the Sharks in Shark Tank episode 617. The pre-show press promises an explosive segment, let’s just hope the drama doesn’t overshadow the usefulness of the product.
My Take on the Scholarship App
As of September 2015, I will have FOUR kids in college (one in grad school, 3 undergrad). With private colleges running around $45,000 per year and up – that’s before room and board – any extra money is very helpful. My kids applied for FAFSA grants and scholarships, and the bills still top out around $25-$30K per year PER KID! I will be instructing them to download and utilize Scholly on their smart phones!
With ever escalating college costs, services that aggregate the tens of thousands of available scholarships (numbering in the hundreds of millions of dollars) will become more and more valuable. The fact that Scholly vets out the very best available programs makes it extra valuable. With tens, if not hundreds, of millions of unclaimed scholarship dollars unused every year, a scholarship app that streamlines and simplifies things for students and their parents is priceless! I am IN!
Sharks get Schooled on Scholly
The pre-show hype has, according to ABC, “three of the Sharks walking out of the Tank.” Judging from the video clips, it appears they leave out of disgust for each other, not for Mr. Gray and his scholarship app. I can only hope, whether he gets a deal or not, the product doesn’t get overshadowed. What Scholly is doing has great value and could make a big difference in many college students’ lives.
I just hope a ratings ploy doesn’t prevent Mr. Gray from getting his message out and getting Scholly into the hands of every prospective college student that needs money for school.
Entrepreneur, auteur, raconteur. Rob Merlino is a blogger and writer who enjoys the Shark Tank TV show and Hot Dogs. A father of five who freelances in a variety of publications, Rob has a stable of websites including Shark Tank Blog, Hot Dog Stories, Rob Merlino.com and more.
I signup to the Scholly site and it will not let me save my settings. If you are going to charge someone money to use your service they it should work. Any money that a college student pays out is money that we work hard to get. I message both Scholly and Daymond John and no one has responded. This site needs work because you can’t do anything without your setting saved. Love the blog by the way.
Attempted to sign up for the app. , but another advertisement comes up instead what a joke.