Alaska Scholarships & Grants (2027–2028): Alaska Performance Scholarship, UA Scholars & Alaska Education Grant Deadlines

How Alaska State Aid Actually Works

Alaska is unusual in a way that helps families and confuses them at the same time. There is no state scholarship application. The high school district reports each graduate’s eligibility to the Department of Education and Early Development, which passes it to the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE). Your job is to file the FAFSA, create the portal account, and show up enrolled. That is the whole process, and it is also why so many families never find out they qualified.

What changed in 2024, and why old advice is wrong now

House Bill 148, signed June 28, 2024, rewrote the Alaska Performance Scholarship for the Class of 2024 and beyond. The University of Alaska raised the UA Scholars Award the same summer. If a handout is more than two years old, assume these six things are wrong on it:

• GPA or test score, not both. The old program required a qualifying score on top of the GPA, and awarded the lower of the two levels. Now either one qualifies on its own.
• The money went up about 47%. Level 1 moved from $4,755 to $7,000, Level 2 from $3,566 to $5,250, and Level 3 from $2,378 to $3,500. Up to $28,000 over four years.
• Eight years to use it, not six. Students still inside their old six-year window on June 30, 2024 got the extra two years too.
• Step-Up is new. A Level 2 or Level 3 student can move up a level in college by taking 15 credits a semester and raising their GPA. Details below.
• WorkKeys now opens every program. Before 2024, a WorkKeys-only qualifier could use the award only for career and technical certificates. Now it works for any degree or certificate.
• UA Scholars is $15,000, not $12,000. The Board of Regents raised it to $1,875 a semester starting fall 2024. Several university pages still show the old $1,500 figure.

• The Performance Scholarship is merit, but it is also last-dollar. It can only pay what is left of your school’s cost of attendance after every other grant and scholarship. That rule has a section of its own.
• It reaches housing. Cost of attendance includes tuition, fees, books, room and board, and transportation, so the award is not limited to tuition.
• It only works in Alaska. Participating Alaska colleges, universities, and approved career and technical programs. A student who leaves the state can come back and use it within the eight-year window.
• The clock is eight full-time semesters or eight years, whichever comes first. Half-time enrollment earns a prorated check and extends the semester count.

The Two Doors Into the Alaska Performance Scholarship

What the Alaska Performance Scholarship actually pays

These are maximums per academic year, paid in two halves, fall and spring. A student is eligible for eight full-time disbursements within eight years of graduation.

“Up to” is doing real work in that table. The award cannot exceed your unmet cost of attendance after all other non-loan aid, and there must be at least $500 of cost left for a payment to happen. Half-time students (6 to 11 credits) get a prorated check.

The courses: pick one of three options

Both doors are locked without the curriculum, and this is the part families discover too late. Every option needs 4 credits of language arts and 4 of social studies. Then:

Only approved courses count, each district publishes its own list, and the course must carry a letter grade on the official transcript. A pass/fail dual-credit class is a real college credit and a zero for APS purposes. The full standard course list is on ACPE’s APS Checklist (PDF).

The Alaska Education Grant: the need-based money underneath

Separate from the merit award, Alaska pays a need-based grant of $500 to $4,000 a year to residents enrolled at least half-time at a participating Alaska school. Need is read from the FAFSA’s Student Aid Index, the number the FAFSA produces to estimate what a family can pay. There is no application beyond the FAFSA.

Here is what the agency page says that families miss: grants go out in order of highest need until the funds are exhausted, and award priority also considers whether you got the grant last year, the date you submitted the FAFSA, and full-time versus part-time enrollment. ACPE’s own words are that not all eligible students receive it, and getting it one year does not guarantee the next. Residency here is stricter than APS: 365 days in Alaska before you file.

The $500 Rule and the Credit Ladder (Alaska’s Most Expensive Fine Print)

Alaska families lose Performance Scholarship money for two reasons that have nothing to do with grades. The first is a rule about other scholarships. The second is a rule about dropping one class.

The translation: the Performance Scholarship is the last check written. For most families it does not matter, because an on-campus cost of attendance at a UA campus runs well above the scholarships stacked under it. It matters for the student who commutes, has Pell, has UA Scholars, and wins a big outside award. That student can watch a $7,000 Level 1 award shrink on the bill and assume someone made a mistake. Nobody did. It is the rule. You’re allowed to ask the financial aid office to show you the cost of attendance they certified and the math.

Read those first two lines together. A freshman who enrolls in 12 credits each semester is full-time and gets paid. Drop one three-credit class in either semester and the year ends at 21 credits, three short of the checkpoint. The payment that fall was fine. The payment next fall is gone. And from year two on, the 12-credit payment floor and the 30-credit yearly requirement no longer agree with each other at all: a sophomore at 12 and 12 is paid both semesters and fails the year.

Major Alaska Programs

Alaska runs on three programs and one regional agreement. Two have no income test at all, and none of them has an essay.

The Step-Up Lever (Alaska’s Best-Kept Secret)

Most state merit programs lock your level at graduation. Alaska does not. Since 2024, a Level 2 or Level 3 student can earn a promotion in college, and the raise is retroactive to nothing but permanent going forward.

1. Take two consecutive full-time semesters of at least 15 credits each at an Alaska institution while receiving the Performance Scholarship. (Three consecutive quarters of 10 credits, or two consecutive full-time certificates at a career and technical school, also count.)
2. Finish them with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and you move to Level 2. Finish with a 3.5 and you move to Level 1.
3. The new level applies from the next semester on.

Here is the arithmetic. A Level 3 student who steps up to Level 2 after freshman year collects an extra $1,750 a year for three years, $5,250 total. Step up to Level 1 and it is an extra $3,500 a year, $10,500 total. That is the difference between a student who tested poorly in high school and the student with the 3.5 who sat next to them, closed in one year of college.

Alaska State Aid Deadlines

Alaska’s dates cluster in a six-week window at the end of senior year. The money that is first-come does not wait for that window.

The Class of 2027 milestone chain

In order, for a senior graduating in May 2027 and starting college in fall 2027. Screenshot this.

Verify current dates at ACPE and UA Scholars before relying on them. Colleges set their own, earlier priority deadlines for institutional scholarships.

How Alaska Aid Interacts With Colleges

Alaska does not write a stacking order into law the way some states do. It writes one rule, and everything else follows from it.

• Alaska aid is flat. APS pays the same $7,000 at UAF as at a community campus in Kodiak, and UA Scholars pays the same $1,875 at all three universities. That is exactly why the college you choose moves your final number more than the state does.
• UA Scholars reduces APS, not the other way around. The handbook says so directly. For an on-campus student it rarely matters, because there is plenty of cost left. Run the numbers anyway.
• The college’s own money is the biggest lever only at UAF right now. See the numbers below.

The CRP move: do not stop at state aid. Open each college’s scholarship page and see what the institution adds on top, then compare schools side by side in the CRP Scholarship Search Tool. Our guide to comparing aid offers walks through reading the letters side by side.

Common Ways Alaska Aid Gets Lost

These are the patterns counselors see every year. None of them are “my kid isn’t smart enough.” They are process problems, and process problems are fixable.

Who Benefits Most (Reality Check)

Low-income families

The strongest position in the state. Pell plus the Education Grant plus even a Level 3 Performance Scholarship covers tuition at a UA campus with money left over, and the Performance Scholarship reaches housing. The thing to guard is the calendar: the Education Grant runs out, and the only lever you control is how early you file.

Middle-income families

Alaska is better to you than most states. The Performance Scholarship has no income test and is not reduced by your Student Aid Index, and UA Scholars has no income test either. A top-10% student with a 3.5 GPA is looking at $7,000 plus $3,750 a year before the college adds anything, with no essay. The Education Grant is unlikely, which makes where you apply the biggest remaining financial decision.

High-achieving students

Students who test poorly

This is the group the 2024 law was written for. A 2.5 GPA carries you into the Performance Scholarship with no test score at all, and a 3.5 is a full Level 1. UAF’s Nanook Pledge is GPA-only, starting at a 3.0. The UA Scholars Award never looked at a test score to begin with. And if the GPA is low but the student is headed for a trade, a WorkKeys score now opens any program, not just certificates.

Adult and returning students

This one is for the parents reading. The Education Grant is open to any resident of 365 days or more without a bachelor’s degree, enrolled at least half-time. If you graduated from an Alaska high school in 2019 or later and were APS-eligible, the 2024 law gave you an eight-year window, which may still be open. Check the portal. Graduates before 2024 are judged by the old rules, which required both GPA and a test score.

First-gen families

Same eligibility as everyone else, higher risk of losing it to a missed step, and in Alaska the steps are quiet. No application means no confirmation email. If you feel behind, you are not. You need a checklist, not a miracle. Start with our First-Gen Parent Guide and the grade-level checklists.

Colleges That Stack Best With Alaska Aid

The Performance Scholarship and UA Scholars pay the same amount at every University of Alaska campus. So the real question is not where state aid goes furthest. It is which campus hands your student the most money on top of it. Below are the three University of Alaska universities currently in the CRP database with verified award tiers. Every figure marked automatic means no essay, no interview, no committee. Admission and your stats do the work.

The one automatic resident grid

• University of Alaska Fairbanks (flagship, Fairbanks): the Nanook Pledge pays Alaska residents $2,000 to $4,000 a year, GPA-only, starting at a 3.0, locked in at admission for four years of continuous full-time enrollment and applied to tuition, fees, housing, meals, and course materials on the student account. The fall 2026 grid lowered the entry point to a 3.0 and capped the top at $4,000, so older handouts are wrong in both directions. Deadline is the June 15 fall admission date; renewal is a friendly 2.0. The Nanook Commitment is a need-based gap filler of $100 to $4,000 with no separate application beyond the admission file and FAFSA. The February 15 general scholarship application (UAF calls the portal AWARDED; some pages still say Kaleidoscope) opens the Honors pool: Usibelli at $1,000 to $1,500 across many students, Dorothy Sugg Rotary at $3,000 with preference for northern Alaska, and several $500 to $1,000 endowed awards. The Fine and Performing Arts Scholarship is $1,000 to $5,000 by portfolio, due November 15.

Where UA Scholars does the work

• University of Alaska Anchorage (Anchorage): no automatic resident merit grid of its own. The automatic money is the UA Scholars Award ($1,875 a semester), plus the Academic Honors Housing Scholarship, $750 a semester off room charges for UA Scholars and Honors College students living on campus (it does not double if you are both). National Merit Scholars get $1,000 a semester for eight semesters, residents or not. The UA Foundation portal, open October 1 to February 15, is where UAA’s roughly $3 million a year in donor scholarships lives, and UAA now matches incoming freshmen automatically from admissions data; completing the profile widens the pool. UAA’s own scholarship page also lists a Seawolf Persist award of $500 to $1,000 a semester with a July 15 FAFSA date; it is not yet in our database, so confirm the terms with UAA before counting on it. Note the deadline conflict: one UAA page still shows a May 1 admission date for UA Scholars while the program says June 30, so apply by spring.
• University of Alaska Southeast (Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka): the Chancellor’s Award is automatic at a 3.5 GPA and covers part of first-year on-campus housing, but UAS does not publish a dollar amount, so we are not going to invent one. UA Scholars pays its $15,000 here as at the others. Continuing students get a $750 Stay on Track grant. The general scholarship application closes February 15 for fall awards (October 15 for spring, April 1 for summer), with Tech Center and community campus students on a July 1 date. UAS publishes almost no nonresident merit, so out-of-state families should price WUE instead.

Not yet in our database. Alaska has a small but real set of schools outside the University of Alaska that take the Performance Scholarship and the Education Grant, and we have not verified their institutional aid, so we are not going to publish numbers for them: Alaska Pacific University (Anchorage, private), Ilisagvik College (Utqiagvik, tribal college), Alaska Christian College (Soldotna), Alaska Bible College (Palmer), AVTEC, Alaska’s Institute of Technology (Seward), Charter College (Anchorage), and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University‘s Alaska campus. We would rather leave them without numbers than publish a guess. Check each school’s own financial aid page, and confirm it is on ACPE’s approved institutions list (PDF).

The two-year and career-training pathway

Alaska has no separate community college system. The two-year and certificate programs live inside the three universities as community campuses: Kenai Peninsula, Mat-Su, Kodiak, and Prince William Sound under UAA; Kuskokwim, Bristol Bay, Chukchi, Northwest, and the Interior Alaska campuses under UAF; Ketchikan and Sitka under UAS. That structure is a gift most families do not notice: the Performance Scholarship and UA Scholars pay at every one of them, and moving from a community campus to the main campus is not a transfer. The award, the credits, and the clock all travel.

For a student headed to a trade, the Performance Scholarship also pays at approved career and technical programs, including AVTEC, as long as the program is on ACPE’s list. A non-credit certificate program needs 30 clock hours a week for at least 12 weeks for a full-time award. Two cautions: Occupational Endorsement certificates are not eligible for APS, and no more than one year of award goes to the same certificate program regardless of its length. Students who qualified on WorkKeys alone before 2024 are limited to certificate programs; 2024 graduates and later are not.

The eight-year window makes a two-step plan realistic. A certificate on two semesters of APS, then a bachelor’s on the remaining six, is explicitly allowed, provided the student keeps meeting the credit and GPA checkpoints between them.

Tip: confirm your Alaska programs here, then open each campus’s scholarship page to see what the school adds. You can also compare schools side by side using the CRP Scholarship Search Tool, or look up your student’s numbers in the scholarships-by-GPA guide.

Smaller Alaska Programs Worth Checking

These do not apply to everyone, but when one applies to your family it is usually significant.

Full list of ACPE programs: acpe.alaska.gov/Funding-Solutions.

Alaska State Aid FAQs

Does Alaska require an ACT score for the Alaska Performance Scholarship?

No. Since the Class of 2024, a student qualifies with either a minimum high school GPA or a minimum test score, not both. A 2.5 GPA earns Level 3, a 3.0 earns Level 2, and a 3.5 earns Level 1 with no test at all. The test route takes a 21, 23, or 25 ACT, a 1060, 1130, or 1210 SAT, or a 12, 15, or 18 WorkKeys total. Either way the student must also complete one of the three required high school curriculum options.

How much is the Alaska Performance Scholarship?

Up to $7,000 a year at Level 1, $5,250 at Level 2, and $3,500 at Level 3, for eight full-time semesters within eight years of high school graduation, so up to $28,000 total. The award cannot exceed the student’s unmet cost of attendance after all other grants and scholarships, and at least $500 of cost must remain for a payment to be made. Half-time students receive a prorated award.

What is the Alaska Performance Scholarship deadline for 2027?

There is no application to submit. The FAFSA priority date is June 30, 2027, and the FAFSA must list an Alaska school. A qualifying ACT, SAT, or WorkKeys must be taken before June 30, 2027 and reported through the high school by the district’s July 15 report. Private school and homeschool students must file an eligibility determination form with the Department of Education and Early Development by July 15. Eligibility appears in the Alaska Student Aid Portal after August 15.

Can you lose the Alaska Performance Scholarship?

Yes. Recipients must earn 24 semester credits in their first year and 30 in each year after, keep a 2.5 cumulative GPA, meet their school’s satisfactory academic progress rules, file a new FAFSA each year, and still have at least $500 of unmet cost after other gift aid. Credits from a retaken course count only once. ACPE does not publish a reinstatement process for a student who misses a checkpoint, so ask the financial aid office in writing before dropping any class.

Does the Alaska Performance Scholarship accept superscores?

It depends on the school district. ACPE says the use of composite ACT or SAT scores is not prohibited and that districts determine eligibility level under their own standard policy. For WorkKeys, districts may combine the three section scores from different test dates. Ask your district’s APS contact what it reports before assuming a lower level, and make sure every score report was sent to the high school.

Can you get both the UA Scholars Award and the Alaska Performance Scholarship?

Yes. The UA Scholars Award is a fixed $15,000, paid at $1,875 a semester for eight semesters at any University of Alaska campus, and it is not reduced by other aid. The Performance Scholarship can be reduced, because the UA Scholars Award counts as other non-loan aid against the student’s cost of attendance. For a student living on campus there is usually enough cost left for both to pay in full. A commuter with several other awards may see the Performance Scholarship shrink.

Does Alaska state aid cover housing?

Yes. The Alaska Performance Scholarship pays toward the full cost of attendance certified by the college, which includes tuition, fees, books, required supplies, room and board, and transportation. The UA Scholars Award is posted to the student account and can be used for housing and meals as well. The Alaska Education Grant is likewise applied to the student account. None of them is limited to tuition.

How much is the Alaska Education Grant and how do you apply?

$500 to $4,000 per academic year, based on financial need from the FAFSA Student Aid Index. The FAFSA is the application, and it must list a qualifying Alaska institution. Grants are awarded in order of highest need until funds are exhausted, with priority for prior-year recipients, earlier FAFSA submission dates, and full-time enrollment. The student must be an Alaska resident for 365 days before filing, enrolled at least half-time, and without a prior bachelor’s degree. Not every eligible student receives it, so file early in the fall.