How ScholarLens reaches an answer.

An AI agent, a language model that decides for itself where to look, reads the official rules for you. Here is where it looks, what it is not allowed to do, and what comes back.

It reads the knowledge base first.

Every question starts with a search of a curated knowledge base: the published eligibility rules for 10 US programs, federal and state, collected from each program's official site. They are split into short passages so the agent can find the exact rule that applies to you and quote it.

Federal: Federal Pell Grant, Federal SEOG, Federal TEACH Grant
California: Cal Grant A and B
Florida: Bright Futures FAS
Georgia: Georgia HOPE Scholarship
New Jersey: NJ Educational Opportunity Fund, NJ STARS, NJ Tuition Aid Grant
New York: NY Tuition Assistance Program

It looks further only when it needs to.

If the knowledge base doesn't cover your question, for example a program outside that list or a country other than the US, the agent searches the web for official program information. When that happens, “Checking official sources” shows up in the steps on your result and the result is labeled as found on the web, so you always know where an answer came from.

If you're studying outside the US, your answers come from this web search, because every program in the knowledge base is a US program. Questions about the programs above usually never leave it.

It won't give a positive answer without a quoted rule.

The agent is not allowed to call you eligible, or even a partial match, without quoting the clause it relied on and naming its source. If a rule depends on something you didn't mention, it lists that instead of guessing.

EligibleYou meet the rule that was quoted.
Partial matchYou meet some rules, or the answer depends on something you didn't say.
Not eligibleThe quoted rule shows why you don't qualify.

What you get back.

Here is an example result for a student asking about Georgia's HOPE Scholarship. The rule is quoted exactly as the program publishes it, and each numbered part is explained underneath.

Example question“I'm finishing high school in Atlanta with a 3.4 GPA. I'm a U.S. citizen and I've lived in Georgia all my life. Can I get the HOPE Scholarship?”

Partial match

Georgia HOPE Scholarship

Your GPA, Georgia residency, and citizenship match HOPE's rules, but the scholarship also requires four full-rigor credits from the state's course list, and you didn't say how many you have.

“Must earn a minimum of four full-rigor credits from the Academic Rigor Course List.”

Eligibility summary, linked to the official page on gafutures.org

This result may change with more information: How many full-rigor credits from the Academic Rigor Course List you have earned

Searching program rules
Validating eligibility
Preparing cited answer

The verdictEligible, partial match, or not eligible. It never estimates your odds of winning.
WhyOne plain-language paragraph that ties what you said to the program's rules.
The ruleThe exact clause the answer rests on, quoted word for word.
The sourceThe document the rule came from, with a link to the program's official page.
What's missingAnything you didn't mention that could change the answer, instead of a guess.
How it was foundThe steps the agent actually took for your question.

What it doesn't do.

It checks published eligibility rules, not your chances of an award. Funding, deadlines, and each program's own review still apply.
It doesn't keep what you type. There are no accounts and no saved profiles.
Rules change between award years. Always confirm with the program before you apply.

If you want the technical side, there is a separate page on how ScholarLens is built and how its answers are measured.

Try it with your own situation

Describe your situation and get a cited answer in about a minute.

Check your eligibility