Texas Scholarships & Grants (2027-2028): TEXAS Grant, TEOG & Hazlewood Deadlines

How Texas State Aid Actually Works

Texas has one front door, and a second door for the students who cannot use the first one. That is the whole system. There is no statewide scholarship portal to create an account on, which is good news, because it means the paperwork burden is smaller here than in most states.

Three Texas myths that cost real money

The TEXAS Grant: Four Doors In, and What It Pays

The TEXAS Grant (Toward EXcellence, Access, and Success) is the state’s flagship need-based grant for students at public universities. It is the largest number on this page for most families, and the one most often left on the table.

Read that last row carefully, because it is the honest part. $5,399 is the ceiling, not the norm. Colleges have discretion to award any amount up to the semester maximum, and the state points them at a $2,500 target. Budget around the target and treat anything above it as a win.

The four ways in

A student needs financial need, Texas residency, at least three-quarter-time enrollment, no bachelor’s degree already earned, and one of these four pathways:

• High school pathway. Graduate from an accredited public or private high school in Texas and enroll at an approved institution within 16 months, with no more than 30 attempted college hours. Dual credit and credit by examination do not count toward that 30.
• Associate degree pathway. Earn an associate degree from a public or private nonprofit Texas institution and enroll within 12 months.
• Military discharge pathway. Enlist within 12 months of graduating a Texas high school, then enroll within 12 months of an honorable discharge.
• TEOG transfer pathway. Receive an initial-year TEOG, complete at least 24 hours with a 2.5 GPA, and transfer to a four-year public.

Keeping it

• End of year one: meet your college’s satisfactory academic progress standard.
• Year two and after: a 2.5 cumulative GPA and 24 completed credit hours per academic year. Both, not either.
• It ends at 150 attempted hours, five years, or your first bachelor’s degree, whichever comes first. Students who entered through the associate degree pathway are capped at 90 hours.
• Losing it is recoverable. Most Texas publics run a TEXAS Grant appeal process. Ask for it by name.

Your move: before your student registers for spring classes, add up the hours. Twenty-four for the year means twelve and twelve, with no room to drop a class in April and still be fine.

The Nine-Hour Rule: The Texas Fine Print That Costs the Most Money

Drop below nine credit hours and the TEXAS Grant is not reduced. It is gone for that semester.

Both the TEXAS Grant and the Tuition Equalization Grant require enrollment of at least three-quarter time, which at a Texas institution means nine semester credit hours. Families reasonably assume part-time enrollment means a part-time grant. It does not work that way. A student who drops from twelve hours to six in week three has not traded away a quarter of the award. They have traded away all of it, for that term, and possibly triggered a repayment.

There is a narrow hardship provision at some institutions for students enrolled between six and nine hours, usually for students finishing a degree or dealing with a documented medical situation. A student enrolled in fewer than six hours cannot be considered at all. The hardship review is not automatic and it is not guaranteed.

The Other Major Texas Programs

Hazlewood: The Biggest Education Benefit in Texas, and the Age Limit Nobody Mentions

If a parent served, the child may be able to attend a Texas public university with tuition and most fees exempted for up to 150 credit hours. And the child has to use it by 25.

The Hazlewood Act is a tuition exemption, not a grant and not a loan. There is nothing to repay. It covers tuition and most mandatory fees at Texas public institutions, up to 150 semester credit hours, which is more than a bachelor’s degree takes. It does not cover books, housing, meal plans, or private colleges. A qualifying veteran generally must have been a Texas resident at entry, designated Texas as home of record, or entered service in Texas, and must have separated under honorable conditions.

The Legacy Act: passing unused hours to a child

A veteran with unused Hazlewood hours can transfer them to a child. This is the part that changes a family’s entire college math, and it is governed by four rules that are easy to miss:

• Age 25. The child must be 25 or younger on the first day of the semester in which the exemption is claimed. Extensions exist for a qualifying illness or debilitating condition, and the institution decides.
• Texas residency. The child must be classified as a Texas resident by the institution for that semester.
• Federal benefits first. The child must have exhausted or been found ineligible for federal VA education benefits before using Legacy hours.
• One pool, one user. All eligible recipients, including the veteran, draw from the same 150 hours, and only one person may use the exemption in a given semester. Unused hours can be reassigned to another child later.

Your move: if a parent or grandparent served, call the Texas Veterans Commission education line before your student’s junior year and ask how many Hazlewood hours remain in the account. Official rules and the application forms are at the Texas Veterans Commission.

The Dual Credit Lever

Dual credit is the highest-return move available to a Texas eleventh grader, and the state has built the funding to match. Financial Aid for Swift Transfer, known as FAST, allows eligible high school students from financially disadvantaged households to take dual credit courses at participating Texas community colleges at no tuition cost to the family. Eligibility is generally tied to free or reduced-price lunch status, and the college is reimbursed by the state.

Here is why it compounds. Those hours do not count against the 30-hour cap on the TEXAS Grant high school pathway. So a student can arrive at a public university with a semester or two already finished, still qualify for the full initial-year TEXAS Grant, and finish sooner, which matters because the grant runs out at 150 attempted hours or five years.

Your move: ask your high school counselor two questions. Which community college is our dual credit partner, and does our district participate in FAST. Then ask the college’s advising office whether the specific courses transfer to the four-year school your student is aiming at, because a dual credit hour that does not transfer is a free hour that does nothing.

Deadlines

The dates that repeat every year

The Class of 2027 chain

How Texas Aid Stacks

Texas does not write a statewide stacking order into law the way some states do. Each college packages within federal rules, and the binding constraint is the Cost of Attendance, or COA, which is the college’s official estimate of tuition, fees, housing, food, books, and transportation for the year. Total aid cannot exceed it. When it would, something gets reduced, usually loans first, but the order varies by institution.

• Pell and the TEXAS Grant stack. This is the combination that moves the needle for low-income families.
• Hazlewood counts as a resource. It can reduce need-based aid in the same package. See the Hazlewood section.
• College merit can be reduced after state aid lands, if the total would exceed COA. Ask before you celebrate.

Two illustrative examples

These are illustrative, built from published maximums to show mechanics. Your actual numbers will differ. Use your college’s net price calculator for a real estimate.

Common Ways Texas Aid Gets Lost

Every one of these is a process problem, not a student problem. They happen to strong students constantly.

Who Benefits Most

Low-income families

The biggest winners here. Pell plus the TEXAS Grant can approach the full cost of tuition, fees, and more at a Texas public. Your single highest-value action is filing in October and answering verification requests within 48 hours.

Middle-income families

Texas state aid will probably not be your largest line item. College merit will be. Read the college section below, because the difference between two Texas publics for the same student is routinely $8,000 a year.

High-achieving students

There is no statewide merit award to win. All of your leverage is at the college level, and the automatic grids at the regional publics and the Texas privates pay far more, far more predictably, than anything at the two flagships.

Students who test poorly

Texas is unusually good for you. State aid reads no test score at all. Several Texas colleges pay automatic merit on class rank or GPA alone, including with no scores submitted.

Adult and returning students

The 16-month clock will likely have closed the high school pathway, but the associate degree pathway and the military discharge pathway both remain open, and TEOG at a community college does not care how old you are.

Military and veteran families

Hazlewood is very likely the largest number available to you anywhere on this page. Check the hours balance before your student turns 24, not after.

First-generation families

Same eligibility, higher risk of a process failure. The two things that protect you are a personal email address everyone checks and a written note of who you spoke to at the financial aid office and when. If you feel behind, you are not. Most families learn all of this in April of senior year.

Colleges That Stack Best With Texas Aid

The state pays roughly the same amount wherever your student enrolls. The college is the variable that actually moves your bill. So the question is not which Texas college is best. It is which one adds the most money on top of a grant that is already fixed.

Everything marked automatic below means no essay, no interview, no committee. You meet the number, you get the money. Amounts are per year unless noted, and every one comes with a deadline, which is the field families most often lack.

Automatic full tuition or better

• Prairie View A&M University: Regents’ Student Merit Scholarship covers full tuition and more, including an out-of-state waiver, at a 3.5 GPA and 26 ACT. Deadline April 1. Renewal at 3.20.
• Houston Christian University: the Grace Hopper Scholarship covers full tuition for admitted students in eligible STEM majors at a 3.25 GPA. Evaluated automatically at admission.
• University of Houston: Cougar Promise covers tuition for in-state students with need. Deadline January 15 for admission documents plus FAFSA or TASFA. Renewal at 2.50, which is a genuinely forgiving bar.
• SMU: the Dallas County Mustang Scholarship is a full-ride award for eligible Dallas County students. Priority deadline January 15.

The lowest academic bar for real money

• Tarleton State University: the President’s Guaranteed Scholarship pays down to top 50 percent of the class with no scores submitted at all. Entry point $500, top tier $4,000, and the Dallas-Fort Worth program tiers run $1,000 to $5,000. Priority February 15. Most tiers carry a nonresident waiver.
• Stephen F. Austin State University: Academic Excellence pays $2,500 at a 3.0 GPA, rising to $6,000 at 3.75. Deadline June 30, which is unusually late and a real second chance for a family that started slow.
• Texas Southern University: the Tiger P.A.W. award starts at a 2.50 GPA with a 17 ACT. Tiger Genesis reaches $7,000 at a 3.0 with a 19. Funds are limited, so apply early in the admission cycle.
• UT Permian Basin: the Falcon awards run $1,000 at a 3.25 GPA to $4,000 at a 3.90, with no test score required and a 2.50 renewal. Apply by April 15 and register for orientation by June 1.
• Lamar University: $2,000 at a 3.5 GPA with a 19 ACT, up to $10,000 at the top. Deadline January 15. Lamar does not superscore the ACT for these, so send your best single sitting.

The clean automatic grids at the publics

• Texas Tech University: Presidential Merit runs $1,000 to $9,000, entry at a 3.00 GPA with a 22 ACT. Priority December 1, final April 1. Superscores the ACT, and the awards carry a nonresident waiver.
• Texas State University: Distinguished starts at a 21 ACT for $4,000 to $5,000, Achievement at a 24 for $6,000 to $8,000, President’s Honor at a 32 for $12,000. Priority December 15. Nonresident waiver attached.
• University of North Texas: Excellence pays $2,000 to $12,000 from a 3.25 GPA, with a $1,000 test score bonus at a 30 ACT. Deadline March 1, test scores by July 1. Nonresident waiver attached.
• UT Arlington: Maverick Academic $1,000 to $8,000, Presidential $10,000. Deadline March 1, one of the latest among the UT campuses.
• UT San Antonio: Distinguished Presidential $500 to $6,000 from a 24 ACT, renewal at 2.50. Deadline January 15, same day as the state.
• UT Rio Grande Valley: the UTRGV Scholars program reaches $42,000 over four years, with a separate housing scholarship worth up to $10,000. Deadline December 1.
• Texas A&M Corpus Christi: Islander Scholars $1,500 at a 3.25 with a 24, up to Presidential $4,000 at a 3.95 with a 28. Application February 1, FAFSA March 1.
• UT Tyler: $2,000 at a 3.0 GPA with a 24 ACT. December 1 admission deadline, and you must confirm intent to enroll by May 1 to keep it.
• UT Dallas: the Top 10% Scholarship pays $5,000 to in-state students, plus the Academic Excellence Scholarship. December 1.
• Sam Houston State University: automatic transfer money at a 2.75 GPA, plus a nonresident waiver tied to institutional awards. November 1 priority.

The biggest automatic dollars, at the privates

These are large numbers against large sticker prices. Compare net price, not award size. All of them can stack with the Tuition Equalization Grant.

• TCU: $12,000 at a 3.20 GPA with a 24 ACT, rising to $32,000 at a 3.80 with a 30. Priority November 1, final February 1.
• Trinity University: $18,000 to $33,000 at a 3.50 GPA. Priority November 1, deadline February 1. Transfer awards $17,000 to $25,000.
• SMU: a clean ladder from $10,000 to $30,000, all on a January 15 priority date.
• Abilene Christian University: $10,000 to $22,000, priority December 1, and full tuition for National Merit Finalists and Semi-Finalists.
• University of the Incarnate Word: $9,000 to $22,000, assigned automatically at admission on high school GPA, rolling deadline, and a 2.00 renewal GPA. That renewal bar is the most forgiving in the state.
• Houston Christian University: awards published as four-year totals, from $68,000 to $100,000, with transfer awards $12,000 to $21,000 per year.

A different model entirely

• UT Austin and Texas A&M: no automatic merit grids in our records. Both run income-based tuition commitments and competitive scholarship review. If your family is under the income threshold these programs use, the flagship can be cheaper than a regional. If you are above it, it is usually more expensive. Ask admissions for the current threshold, because it changes.
• Rice University: merit runs $10,000 to $30,000 and is awarded through the admission review, not a grid.
• Baylor University: merit is reviewed rather than published as public tiers. Apply by February 1 for the strongest consideration.

The two-year and transfer pathway

Texas rewards this route better than almost any state, and almost nobody frames it as a strategy. Start at a community college on TEOG, complete 24 hours at a 2.5 GPA, and the TEOG transfer pathway carries you into the TEXAS Grant at a four-year public. Several universities then add automatic transfer money on top: Sam Houston at a 2.75 GPA, Houston Christian from a 2.00, UT San Antonio at a 3.80, Trinity at $17,000 to $25,000, and Incarnate Word through its Alamo Colleges agreement.

Two cautions. The 16-month clock and the 150-hour cap keep running while you are at the two-year college. And a student who entered the TEXAS Grant through the associate degree pathway is capped at 90 hours, not 150, so there is less room for a change of major.

If you live just across the line

Texas publics attach nonresident tuition waivers to a striking number of their automatic awards, which means a student from Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, or New Mexico can sometimes pay close to Texas resident rates. Texas Tech, Texas State, UNT, UT Arlington, UT San Antonio, Tarleton, and Sam Houston all show waivers attached to automatic scholarships in our records. The state grants on this page require Texas residency, but the college money does not. Also see our Arkansas guide for a comparison.

Smaller Programs Worth Checking

Full list and current rules: THECB Exemptions and Waivers.

Texas State Aid FAQs

How much is the TEXAS Grant for 2026-2027?

The maximum is $5,399 per semester at a public university or health-related institution, which is $10,798 for fall and spring, or up to $16,197 if a student also receives a summer award. That is the ceiling, not the typical award. The state directs institutions toward a target amount of $2,500 per semester, and colleges have discretion up to the maximum, so plan around the target.

Do you have to apply separately for the TEXAS Grant?

No. There is no separate TEXAS Grant application. Filing the FAFSA is how you apply, or the TASFA if your student cannot file a FAFSA. The same filing also covers TEOG and the Tuition Equalization Grant. Never file both a FAFSA and a TASFA.

What is the Texas financial aid deadline for 2026-2027?

January 15 is the state priority deadline. It is not a hard cutoff, and applications are accepted after it, but it is the date colleges use to rank students for limited funding. Each institution decides for itself what a student must have completed by that date to count as on time, so ask your college what a complete file means to them. The date has moved in recent years, to April 15 for 2024-2025 and February 15 for 2025-2026, so do not rely on an older handout.

Does dual credit count against TEXAS Grant eligibility?

No. The high school pathway requires that a student not have attempted more than 30 college credit hours, but credits earned through dual enrollment or by examination are specifically excluded from that count. Dual credit does not put the TEXAS Grant at risk, and it helps a student finish before the 150-hour and five-year limits run out.

Can you lose the TEXAS Grant?

Yes, and the most common cause is enrollment. The grant requires at least nine credit hours, which is three-quarter time. Dropping below nine eliminates the award for that semester rather than reducing it. From the second year onward a student also needs a 2.5 cumulative GPA and 24 completed credit hours per academic year. Eligibility ends at 150 attempted hours, five years, or the first bachelor’s degree. Most Texas public institutions offer a TEXAS Grant appeal process, so ask for it by name.

Does Texas state aid cover housing?

Not directly. The TEXAS Grant and TEOG are cash awards applied to your bill, so once tuition and fees are covered the remainder can help with other costs, but they are not designed as full cost-of-attendance awards. The Hazlewood exemption specifically excludes housing, books, and meal plans. Total aid from all sources cannot exceed the college’s published cost of attendance.

Can a veteran’s child use Hazlewood, and until what age?

Yes, through the Hazlewood Legacy Act, if the veteran has unused hours to transfer. The child must be 25 or younger on the first day of the semester, must be classified as a Texas resident, must meet satisfactory academic progress, and must have exhausted or been found ineligible for federal VA education benefits first. All recipients share the same pool of 150 hours and only one person may use it in a given semester. Children and spouses of veterans who died in the line of duty or became totally disabled from service qualify under separate and more generous rules, with no age limit.

Can you receive both the TEXAS Grant and the Tuition Equalization Grant?

Not at the same institution, because they serve different sectors. The TEXAS Grant is for public universities and the Tuition Equalization Grant is for private nonprofit Texas colleges. A student transferring between sectors may move from one to the other. Both share the same January 15 priority date, the same nine-hour enrollment floor, and the same requirement that total aid stay within the cost of attendance.