If you have a child applying for college or looking for a job, you know that the competition is fierce. Finding a scholarship that the entire class isn’t applying for or locating a solid company for that first job can sometimes feel impossible. But, there’s an app for that called Tallo, and it’s changing the way students, colleges, and businesses connect.
What Is the Tallo App?
Tallo makes the process of finding that dream opportunity — whether it’s a job, scholarship, or just a company connection — one step easier.
Tallo was created eight years ago and has been growing ever since. In some ways, it feels like a LinkedIn for college students, but much more directed at helping that specific audience. There are currently more than 1.3 million users, including 4,700 colleges, 29,000 high schools, and 3,000 middle schools, as well as more than 440,000 users.
“We know that everyone has a skill, interest, or ability that someone else is looking for, and we created Tallo to bridge that gap,” Tallo co-founder and CEO, Casey Welch, tells Parentology. As a former college athlete who experienced the athletic recruiting process firsthand. He created Tallo to replicate the athletic recruiting process for all students, regardless of their skills or background.
Students and job seekers can use Tallo to connect with colleges and companies earlier than ever. Even if a company doesn’t have a job opening at the time, establishing that connection early on can make all the difference down the road.
Welch tells Parentology that one of the goals is to make students aware of the different career paths available to them and pursue ones that best match their skills.
How Tallo Works
Students and professionals create free digital profiles. These profiles showcase their talents while helping them connect with colleges and companies, as well as find unique scholarships. Colleges and companies can then view student profiles and search for the qualities they’re looking for in a candidate, and message them.
“Companies and colleges can grow their brand awareness with a target audience, share their opportunities and industry, and directly connect with over one million talent users from across the country,” says Welch.
One new feature that Tallo just launched in 2020 is Ping by Tallo. This mobile platform creates the experience of a virtual college or career fair. This is proving to be extremely useful as many in-person events had to be canceled due to the pandemic.
At the start of each virtual event, participants answer a few questions about what they’re looking for so that they can get a list of matches. Each match comes with a score from 1-100 that indicates the strength of the match.
“Students, job seekers, and recruiters can use that match score as a starting point for a conversation and send them a direct message on the spot,” says Welch.
Since Ping launched on Tallo, participants have made more than 250,000 matches.
What Is a Tallo Scholarship?
One of Tallo’s big draws is scholarships. The amounts can vary widely, but when you’re looking for financial assistance any amount helps.
Students can find scholarships on Tallo that are not available elsewhere. Some are hosted directly on Tallo while others are available through Tallo’s RedKite integration system. Tallo’s specialty is “No Essay” scholarships that don’t require GPA information, essays, or financial need information.
“Merchandising and student organization partners like HOSA [Health Occupations Students of America, now called Future Health Professionals] and FBLA [Future Business Leaders of America], will post financial aid opportunities that include grants, student competitions, and scholarships,” says Welch.
If students take advantage of RedKite, their Tallo profile is used to match them to scholarships. It looks at their skills, interests, goals, and accomplishments then filters through $20 billion in scholarships to find each student’s best match. Students can see their match score and dollar amount of each scholarship within minutes. The video below explains how it works.
Preventing Scams
Look up Tallo in Google and you’ll find “Is Tallo legit?” Similarly, when googling any scholarship information, people wonder if certain scholarships are actually scams. According to the Federal Trade Commission, scam companies guarantee or promise scholarships, grants, or out-of-this-world financial aid packages that are too good to be true.
Some red flags include lines like these:
- “The scholarship is guaranteed or your money back.”
- “You can’t get this information anywhere else.”
- “I just need your credit card or bank account number to hold this scholarship.”
- “We’ll do all the work. You just pay a processing fee.”
If you hear any of those lines, think twice before your child applies for the scholarship. After all, a scholarship is meant to give your child money for college, so if they’re asking you for money that should be investigated further.
Welch tells Parentology that all companies, colleges, and organizations on Tallo are verified by a Tallo team member to prevent scams. Tallo is also a closed network so users can’t see other users’ profiles. User profiles also can’t be accessed through search engines.
If you ever suspect a scam when it comes to a scholarship opportunity, it’s best to contact the Federal Trade Commission and report it to your state Attorney General.
What Is a Tallo Scholarship — Sources
Tallo
Casey Welch, Tallo CEO, and Co-founder