Going Merry Shut Down: Best Scholarship Tracker Alternatives for Students in 2026

If you relied on Going Merry to find and apply for scholarships, you already know the bad news: the platform officially shut down on March 5, 2026. No new applications, no edits, no access to your saved data.

For the thousands of students and counselors who depended on Going Merry’s scholarship matching, deadline tracking, and FAFSA tools, the shutdown left a real gap. The good news? There are strong alternatives out there, and some of them offer features Going Merry never had.

Here’s a breakdown of the best options for students, families, and schools looking to replace Going Merry in 2026.

What Made Going Merry Special

Before we dive into alternatives, it’s worth understanding what Going Merry did well. The platform combined scholarship search with application management in one place. Students could get matched to scholarships based on their profile, apply to multiple scholarships with one form, and counselors could track student progress from a dashboard.

If you’re looking for a replacement, you want something that covers those same bases: not just a search engine, but a tool that helps you stay organized through the entire process.

The Best Going Merry Alternatives in 2026

1. Your Grad Path: Best All-in-One Alternative

Best for: Students, families, and school counselors who want scholarship tracking, deadline management, and family visibility in one platform.

Your Grad Path is the closest thing to a true Going Merry replacement. In many ways, it goes further. Like Going Merry, YGP matches students with scholarship opportunities and gives counselors a dashboard to track progress. But it also adds features Going Merry never offered:

• AI-powered Smart Search that aggregates results from multiple sources, not just its own database
• Deadline and timeline tracking with a color-coded visual calendar so nothing slips through the cracks
• Auto-generated resumes that build themselves as students log activities and achievements
• Family dashboards so parents can see exactly where their student stands without the back-and-forth
• FAFSA and college readiness tracking built directly into the platform

Pricing: Free trial available. Student plans start at $7.99/month, family plans at $9.99/month. Custom pricing for schools and districts.

2. Fastweb: Best Free Scholarship Search Engine

Best for: Students who just need to find scholarships and don’t need tracking tools.

Fastweb has been around for over two decades and has one of the largest scholarship databases available. You create a profile, and Fastweb matches you with relevant opportunities.

The limitation: Fastweb is a search tool, not a management tool. You’ll find scholarships, but you’re on your own when it comes to tracking deadlines, organizing applications, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks. There’s no counselor dashboard, no family visibility, and no resume builder.

Pricing: Free

3. Bold.org: Best for No-Essay Scholarships

Best for: Students looking for quick-apply, no-essay scholarship opportunities.

Bold.org has grown rapidly and offers a wide range of scholarships, many of which don’t require essays. The application process is streamlined, and the platform is clean and easy to navigate.

However, Bold.org focuses on its own scholarship marketplace. It doesn’t aggregate external opportunities the way Going Merry did. And like Fastweb, there’s no built-in deadline tracking, counselor tools, or family features.

Pricing: Free for students

4. SchooLinks: Best for Large School Districts

Best for: Districts and large schools that need a comprehensive college and career readiness platform.

SchooLinks is an enterprise-grade platform that covers everything from career exploration to FAFSA tracking to scholarship management. It’s a powerful tool, but it’s designed for institutions, not individual students or families.

If your school already uses SchooLinks, take advantage of it. But if you’re an individual student or family looking to replace Going Merry, this isn’t the right fit. There’s no free tier, no public pricing, and no way to sign up on your own.

Pricing: Custom (school/district contracts only)

5. Scholarships360: Best for Scholarship Research

Best for: Students who want curated scholarship lists organized by category, deadline, and eligibility.

Scholarships360 offers well-organized, editorially curated scholarship lists. Their content is excellent for discovering opportunities you might not find elsewhere. But it’s primarily a research tool, not a platform for managing your applications.

Pricing: Free

Comparison: Going Merry Alternatives at a Glance

Feature	Your Grad Path	Fastweb	Bold.org	SchooLinks	Scholarships360
Scholarship Search	Yes (AI-powered)	Yes	Yes (own marketplace)	Yes	Yes (curated)
Deadline Tracking	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Application Management	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	No
Auto-Generated Resume	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Family/Parent Dashboard	Yes	No	No	No	No
Counselor Dashboard	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
FAFSA Tracking	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Free Trial / Free Tier	Free trial	Free	Free	No (schools only)	Free
Individual Signup	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes

What to Do Right Now If You Used Going Merry

If you’re a student or family who lost access to Going Merry, here’s your action plan:

Step 1: Don’t panic. Your scholarship opportunities still exist. You just need a new home base to track them.

Step 2: Recreate your profile. Sign up for one of the platforms above and rebuild your student profile. The sooner you do this, the sooner you’ll start getting matched with relevant opportunities.

Step 3: Recover your scholarship list. If you saved a list of scholarships you were tracking in Going Merry, pull it from your email confirmations or browser history. Enter those deadlines into your new platform.

Step 4: Set up deadline alerts. The biggest risk when switching platforms is losing track of upcoming deadlines. Make sure your new tool sends you reminders.

Step 5: Tell your counselor. If your school was using Going Merry, let your counselor know which platform you’ve moved to. Better yet, suggest they check out tools like Your Grad Path that offer counselor dashboards. It makes their job easier too.

Your Grad Path is a student success platform that helps students, families, and schools track scholarships, manage deadlines, and plan for college, all in one place. Trusted by schools and families across Florida’s Treasure Coast.