Scholarship Scraper Actor

This Apify Actor is designed to scrape scholarship information from multiple scholarship databases and platforms. It provides structured data output with comprehensive scholarship details to help students find financial aid opportunities.

Overview

The Scholarship Scraper Actor automatically collects scholarship data from various sources including:

• Scholarships.com - A comprehensive database of college scholarships
• FastWeb - Free scholarship matching and awards
• College Board - Official scholarship resources and opportunities

The actor performs searches based on your criteria and returns detailed scholarship information including eligibility requirements, deadlines, and application links.

Features

• Multiple Data Sources: Scrapes from multiple scholarship platforms simultaneously
• Structured Data Output: Returns consistent, well-formatted scholarship information
• Configurable Search Parameters: Filter scholarships by country, education level, and field of study
• Error Handling and Logging: Robust error handling with detailed logging
• Dataset Export Capabilities: Export results to various formats
• Efficient Processing: Optimized for fast data collection

Output Data

Each scholarship record includes the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
title	string	Scholarship name
provider	string	Source platform (scholarships.com, fastweb, college_board)
amount	string	Award amount in USD
deadline	string	Application deadline
description	string	Scholarship description and requirements
url	string	Direct link to the scholarship
source	string	Source platform
field_of_study	string	Area of study or discipline
level	string	Education level (Undergraduate, Graduate, etc.)
location	string	Geographic location or coverage area
scraped_at	string	ISO timestamp when data was collected

Usage

Running the Actor

To run this actor with default parameters:

$apify run

Input Parameters

You can customize the actor's behavior by providing input with:

• search_query (string, default: "scholarship") - Search terms for filtering scholarships
• maxScholarships (integer, default: 50) - Maximum number of scholarships to scrape (1-1000)
• country (string, default: "") - Filter by country (e.g., USA, Canada, UK)
• minAmount (number, default: 0) - Minimum scholarship amount in USD
• educationLevel (string, default: "") - Filter by education level (High School, Undergraduate, Graduate, Postdoctoral)
• fieldOfStudy (string, default: "") - Filter by field of study

Example Input

{
  "search_query": "STEM scholarships",
  "maxScholarships": 100,
  "country": "USA",
  "minAmount": 1000,
  "educationLevel": "Undergraduate",
  "fieldOfStudy": "Engineering"
}

Installation

First, install the dependencies:

$pip install -r requirements.txt

Then run the actor:

$apify run

Deployment

To push the actor to the Apify Console:

$apify push

Project Structure

.actor/
  - actor.json (Actor configuration)
  - input_schema.json (Input validation schema)
  - output_schema.json (Output data schema)
  - dataset_schema.json (Dataset structure definition)
src/
  - __init__.py (Package initialization)
  - __main__.py (Entry point)
  - main.py (Main scraper logic)
requirements.txt (Python dependencies)
README.md (This file)
Dockerfile (Docker configuration)

Requirements

The actor requires:

• Python 3.8+
• Apify SDK for Python
• Web scraping libraries (BeautifulSoup4, requests)
• Playwright for browser automation

Performance Notes

• Each actor run scrapes multiple scholarship databases in parallel
• Execution time depends on the number of scholarships requested and complexity of filters
• The actor includes automatic rate limiting to respect website policies

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

1. Check the actor logs - Review detailed error messages in the last run logs
2. Verify input parameters - Ensure all input values are valid and properly formatted
3. Check internet connection - The actor requires stable internet access
4. Review website updates - Source websites may change their structure requiring actor updates

Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, please contact the actor developer or visit the Apify documentation.

License

This actor is provided as-is for educational and research purposes.