Gather together the documents that you'll need to support your college education grant applications. These include your personal information, financial information such as bank statements and tax returns for the past year, possibly your parents' financial information and possibly information about your academic performance.
Apply online for federal education grants at the website for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA. Use the website to check if you meet the requirements for any federal student grants and use it to apply for them if you do. Be sure to apply as early as possible because the funding for these grants is limited, meaning that grants are given out on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Contact your state's Department of Education to check if there are any state-run college education grant programs. Alternatively, use a grant-matching service such as CollegeScholarships.org to check for the same information. Examples of popular state-run college education grant programs include California's Cal Grant Program and Texas's Towards Excellence, Access, and Success program.
Speak with your college's financial aid office to see if there are any grants available for your specific program. Similarly, check with your financial aid office to see what grants your college makes available to its students.
Use a grant matching service like CollegeScholarships.org to see if there are any grants available for your field of study. This will be particularly fruitful if you belong to a high-demand program like nursing or teaching, but many will come with conditions. For example, the federal Nursing Scholarship Program offers grants to students in nursing programs if they are willing to work in disadvantaged areas for two years after graduation.
Use a grant matching service to check for grants if you belong to a disadvantaged group in society. There are a range of grants available out there to help women and ethnic minorities. Some might qualify you based on membership alone, while others will require you to be in specific fields or come with conditions.
Go through the college education grants for which you qualify and submit applications for each one. Closely follow their instructions and take care to get all necessary documents in as soon as possible.
Follow up on the status of your college grant applications. Even if you fail to get the college grant, you can always reapply next year. Contact the grant-maker if you can to find out how you can improve your application in the future. Not only will this help you increase your chance of success with getting this specific college grant on future attempts, but also your chances of success with other college grants.