Many adult students remember checking the board in the guidance counselor's office for scholarship opportunities or reading about them in the local paper. The process was slower, kinder, gentler.

But today, those opportunities will fly past you and possibly smack you in the face as they truck on by if you are not careful. There are thousands of scholarships available for students and now the competition isn't just local. It is nationwide and it is fierce.

And, you won't find most of them on the school bulletin board. Just like everything else, you'll find them on the internet. And you can search for hours.

Our favorite website this month, www.fastweb.com, has done some of that work for you.

The editors there have created a dizzying and busy webpage full of links to scholarship opportunities. You can scroll through every single one or you can search through an array of factors: year of school, ethnicity, military service and even whether you were an orphan.

This month the site features a blog that details the weirdest scholarship opportunities out there, in celebration of Halloween.

For example, the Horror Writers Association will give $2,500 this year to the applicant who submits the best example of horror writing and details why they deserve the award. No word on whether the two topics can be combined into a single work of prose...

The Tall Clubs International will give $1,000 to a college freshman who measures above average height, 5'10" for women and 6'2" for men.

And if you attend Loyola University and your last name happens to be Zolp, you are really in luck. The Zolp Scholarship is awarded to individuals who meet only those two criteria.

And you thought only the smart kids got all the money. The opportunities, apparently, are endless.

Happy Scholarship applying!