Next to federal or state financial aid, scholarships offer a helpful way to defray or cover the cost of a college education.

A number of Web sites offer useful tools that can help you track down scholarship opportunities and answer scholarship-related questions.

Here are a few worth visiting:

Collegeboard.com at cbweb10p.collegeboard.org/fundfinder/html/fundfind01.html. It features an online questionnaire that matches information with specific scholarship opportunities.

CollegeLink at www.collegelink.com/clnk/scholarship/. Persons can browse scholarships by academic field.

FastWeb at www.fastweb.com. The site provides details on more than 60,000 scholarships.

Scholarships.com at www.scholarships.com. The site contains a scholarship search and insights on a variety of scholarship-related topics.

Scholarship Resource Network Express at www.srnexpress.com/schfaq.htm. It provides useful questions and answers on how to research and find scholarships.