About the map 🧭

Who this is for

High-school students, current college students, parents, independent and first-generation students, foster youth, and anyone without family financial support — anywhere in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and New York. If college costs feel impossible, this is built for you.

Where our data comes from

• Colleges: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard and NCES IPEDS — official institution data, refreshed through a documented pipeline (not a hand-typed list).
• Federal aid: Federal Student Aid (FAFSA, Pell, work-study, forgiveness).
• State grants: each state's official agency — PHEAA (PA), HESAA (NJ), Delaware Higher Education Office, MHEC (MD), SCHEV (VA), HESC (NY).
• Careers: CareerOneStop and each program's official page.
• Every grant/program link carries a source and a "verified" date. Programs change — always confirm on the official page.

Our promises

• We don't invent scholarships, amounts, deadlines, contacts, or forgiveness rules — official sources only.
• We never promise you'll qualify, get money, get admitted, or have loans forgiven.
• We don't collect Social Security numbers, FAFSA data, tax returns, financial-aid documents, or immigration info. See our privacy policy.
• This is educational information, not legal, tax, financial, or admissions advice.

How it stays free (funding & sustainability)

Essential information is always free. To cover the small cost of running the site, we use — transparently and without ever compromising the info:

• Optional donations (run by a small volunteer team; see below).
• Clearly-labeled local sponsorships and school/organization profiles — never mixed into rankings or search order.
• Nonprofit and foundation grants; if operated by an eligible nonprofit, we'd separately pursue Google Ad Grants.

What we never do: sell or share student data, rank colleges or scholarships by who pays us, charge students for information, or run predatory "financial-hustle" ads.

💛 Support the site — donation links coming soon. Run by a small volunteer team; sites like this need constant upkeep to keep information current, and your support keeps it free.

Contact & corrections

Found something out of date, or want to suggest a scholarship, event, or correction? Email hello@thelocalsquare.org. A real person reviews everything; verified items get a source link and date.