# College Board Scholarship Search Scraper (`parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes scholarships from College Board BigFuture by search term and education level. Returns each scholarship as a flat row with name, sponsor, amount, deadline, and eligibility details.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, Agents
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 87.1% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.43 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

[![ParseForge](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/main/banner.jpg)](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp)

### College Board Scholarship Search Scraper

**Scrape scholarships from College Board BigFuture by search term or education level, up to a million per run.** Each scholarship comes with its name, sponsor, amount, deadline, and eligibility details. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

College Board's BigFuture Scholarship Search is the largest free scholarship database, but manually browsing thousands of listings is slow and error-prone. This Actor reads the public search results directly, filtered by your search term and education level, and returns each match in one fixed schema. It is built for students, counselors, and researchers who need scholarship data at scale.

| Who uses it | What they scrape College Board BigFuture Scholarship Search for |
|---|---|
| High school counselors | Build a complete list of scholarships their students qualify for |
| Scholarship platform developers | Populate their own database with fresh College Board listings |
| Education researchers | Analyze scholarship availability by field, amount, or deadline |
| Nonprofit organizations | Curate scholarship opportunities for underserved student groups |

### What it does

This Actor collects scholarships from College Board BigFuture by search term and education level, and returns each one as a flat row.

- 🔍 **Search term filter:** find scholarships by name, sponsor, or keyword.
- 🎓 **Education level filter:** restrict results to high school, undergraduate, or graduate awards.
- 📊 **Flat row output:** every scholarship is one record, ready for spreadsheets or databases.
- ⚡ **Up to a million rows:** set maxItems to collect as many scholarships as you need.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

### What you can do with College Board BigFuture Scholarship Search data

**🎓 Build a scholarship list for your school.**

A high school counselor runs the Actor with education level set to High School and a broad search term, then exports the results to share with students.

**📈 Track scholarship trends over time.**

A researcher runs the Actor weekly with the same filters, then compares deadlines and award amounts to spot changes in funding availability.

**💼 Power a scholarship matching app.**

A developer uses the Actor to seed their database with College Board listings, then matches users to scholarships based on eligibility criteria.

**🌍 Curate opportunities for a specific group.**

A nonprofit runs the Actor with a search term like 'STEM' or 'first-generation', then publishes the filtered list on their website.

### Why choose this scraper

| | What you get |
|---|---|
| **No API key** | Uses the public BigFuture search, no registration or OAuth |
| **Flexible filters** | Search by keyword and education level in one run |
| **Scalable** | Collect up to 1,000,000 scholarships per run |
| **Clean output** | Flat rows with consistent fields for easy analysis |

### How it compares

No other Store actor targets College Board BigFuture Scholarship Search the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

| | College Board Scholarship Search Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When College Board BigFuture Scholarship Search changes | Maintained for you | You fix it | You re-learn the page |
| Proxies, retries, anti-bot | Built in | Your problem | Browser only |
| Output | Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export | Whatever you build | Copy-paste |
| Cost | Pay per result | Engineering time | Analyst hours |

### Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a free-text search term and an education level filter, alone or together, and set a maximum number of scholarships to collect per run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

```json
{
 "maxItems": 10
}
```

A larger pull:

```json
{
 "maxItems": 200
}
```

### Pricing

Pay-per-result: **$0.006 per result** collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $0.60 |
| 1,000 results | $6.00 |
| 10,000 results | $60.00 |

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

### Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. [Upgrade your Apify plan](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

### Run it

1. [Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp).
2. Open the [College Board Scholarship Search Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper?fpr=vmoqkp).
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click **Start**.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the **Dataset** tab.

Run it programmatically through the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) (`run-sync-get-dataset-items`) or the [ApifyClient](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js) for JavaScript and Python.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to College Board BigFuture Scholarship Search through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper"
```

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

### Troubleshooting

**Why am I getting no results?**

Your search term may be too specific, or the education level filter may exclude all matches. Try a broader term or set education level to Any.

**Why did the run stop before reaching maxItems?**

The Actor stops when there are no more matching scholarships. Try broadening your filters to get more results.

**Why are some fields empty in the output?**

College Board may not provide every field for every scholarship. Empty fields mean the data was not available on the listing.

**Can I scrape scholarships for a specific state or major?**

The current input only supports search term and education level. Use the search term to include keywords like a state name or major.

### FAQ

| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need a College Board account or API key? | No. The Actor reads the public BigFuture Scholarship Search results, so no login or API key is required. |
| What filters can I use? | You can filter by a free-text search term (scholarship name or sponsor) and by education level: high school, undergraduate, or graduate. |
| How many scholarships can I collect in one run? | You can set maxItems to any number up to 1,000,000. The Actor will stop once it reaches that count or runs out of results. |
| What data does each scholarship include? | Each row includes the scholarship name, sponsor, award amount, deadline, and eligibility details as returned by College Board. |
| Can I export the results? | Yes. You can export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML directly from the Apify platform. |
| Is this Actor affiliated with College Board? | No. This is an independent scraper that reads publicly available data from the BigFuture Scholarship Search website. |
| How often is the data updated? | The Actor fetches live data from College Board on each run, so you always get the latest listings. |
| Can I schedule this Actor to run automatically? | Yes. You can set up a schedule in Apify to run it daily, weekly, or at any interval you choose. |
| What if I get no results? | Check your search term and education level filters. Try a broader term or set education level to Any. |
| Does this Actor handle pagination? | Yes. It automatically follows pagination to collect all matching scholarships up to your maxItems limit. |

### Related actors

Browse the full [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp) for more scrapers.

🆘 **Need help?** Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ **Disclaimer.** This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by College Board. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.

# Actor input Schema

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of scholarships to collect per run.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Free-text search for scholarship name or sponsor.

## `level` (type: `string`):

Filter by education level.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "maxItems": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "maxItems": 10 }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "maxItems": 10
}' |
apify call parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,parseforge/college-board-scholarship-search-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/a03qDzWTlCQ1M9PKo/builds/pUEEgfcyJEATAcuaB/openapi.json