Utah Scholarships & Grants (2027–2028): Opportunity Scholarship, Utah Promise Grant & First Credential Deadlines

How Utah State Aid Actually Works

Utah’s state aid is modest, and the colleges carry most of the weight. The state runs one merit scholarship (Opportunity), one need-based grant (Utah Promise), and a set of smaller targeted programs, all through the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). There is no single state portal that holds everything. Instead there are two front doors, and the second one is the college itself.

The one exception is the Opportunity Scholarship, which has its own USHE application in the winter of senior year. The First Credential Scholarship also uses a USHE application.

What changed since 2022, and why old advice is wrong now

If a handout is more than a couple of years old, assume these five things are wrong on it:

• The Regents’ and New Century Scholarships are gone. They were replaced by the Opportunity Scholarship, starting with the Class of 2022. The four-years-of-math course list went with them.
• The Opportunity Scholarship pays for two years, not four. It covers up to four semesters. The Class of 2026 maximum is $800 per semester, down from $1,000 for the Classes of 2022 through 2025.
• PRIME is now First Credential. House Bill 260 (2025) replaced the PRIME scholarship, effective July 1, 2025.
• The Opportunity amount may now be set by the Commissioner of Higher Education. House Bill 373, passed by the Legislature in 2026, lets the Commissioner take over that annual decision from the Board, along with the First Credential and Karen Mayne amounts. Either way, the Class of 2027 number depends on funding.
• The Utah Promise Grant absorbed other programs. The Legislature merged the Higher Education Success Stipend into it, and leftover New Century funding was moved into it as well.

The Opportunity Scholarship: The Three-Class Rule

Which classes count

The test USHE uses is the course’s Utah State Board of Education core code: it must start with 06 (language arts), 07 (math), or 08 (science). That is the translation move that matters. A college course with a science-sounding name that is coded as something else does not count.

The full list lives on USHE’s Concurrent Enrollment Master List. Early College courses taken directly through a Utah college can count too, but the student may need to send that transcript with the application.

What the Opportunity Scholarship actually pays

A set maximum per semester, for up to four semesters, toward tuition and general student fees. USHE sets a new maximum for each graduating class based on funding and the number of qualified applicants. The award is applied after other state aid, so a student who also gets the Utah Promise Grant may see a smaller Opportunity payment that semester.

How to keep it

• Enroll full time (generally 12 credits) the fall right after high school at an eligible school, or get an approved deferment. Part-time semesters pay nothing but do not end eligibility.
• Earn credit for every class the scholarship paid for that semester.
• Meet satisfactory academic progress, which USHE describes as typically a 3.0 semester GPA. Miss it once and the student is placed on probation and can still be paid. Miss it a second time and the remaining payments are forfeited. There is no probation for missing the credit requirement.
• Stay enrolled every fall and spring (fall and winter at BYU and Ensign), or get an approved leave of absence from the college before you stop.
• Use it within five years of high school graduation.

Five Programs Named Promise (Utah’s Most Expensive Fine Print)

In Utah, “Promise” is the name of at least five different programs, and they do not share rules. Families hear “Utah Promise covers tuition,” apply for one of them, and miss the deadline for the one that actually fits. The words below are close. The rules are not.

Three more campus programs work the same way without the name: the University of Utah’s For Utah (Pell eligible, 3.2 GPA), Weber State’s Dream Weber (Pell eligible, separate application, priority the first Friday in December), and UVU’s Greenlight (Pell eligible, financial aid file by February 1). All of the campus programs are last-dollar: they pay whatever tuition is left after Pell and every other grant and scholarship is applied. If other aid already covered tuition, a last-dollar award pays $0, and that is a win, not a rejection.

Major Utah Programs

Every program below is administered by USHE. The Opportunity Scholarship, the Utah Promise Grant, First Credential, and T.H. Bell all pay at eligible private colleges as well as public ones, which surprises families who assume state aid stops at the public schools.

The December Stack (and the Advanced-Course Lever)

A Utah senior can line up nearly every large award before winter break, using two forms the family was going to fill out anyway. Here is the order.

1. File the 2027–28 FAFSA in October or November 2026. It is open now. It feeds Pell, the Utah Promise Grant, the Opportunity requirement, and every campus full-tuition program.
2. Apply for admission by December 1, 2026 at the University of Utah, Utah State, and Southern Utah. At the U and USU, admission by that date is the merit scholarship application. At SUU it also opens the President’s Scholarship review.
3. Submit the separate need-based applications by early December: SUU’s T-Bird Promise (priority December 1) and Weber’s Dream Weber (priority December 4, 2026).
4. Apply to BYU by December 15, 2026 if it is on the list, then submit the separate BYU scholarship application. BYU’s pages show both January 2 and February 1, 2027 for that application, so meet January 2.
5. Submit the Opportunity application on or after January 5, 2027, and before February 5.

The advanced-course lever, for juniors and sophomores

Concurrent enrollment classes do three jobs at once in Utah. They are the three courses the Opportunity Scholarship requires. Under the Class of 2026 rules, five general education CE courses were one route to the First Credential Scholarship. And Utah State runs an in-state Advanced Coursework Scholarship that rewards AP, IB, and CE work separately from its GPA awards. Each CE course is also college credit the family does not pay university tuition for later.

Utah State Aid Deadlines

A priority deadline is the date by which you must apply to be first in line for limited money. You can often still apply after it, but the money may be gone. In Utah, the colleges’ priority dates come first.

The Class of 2027 milestone chain

Every date a Utah senior entering college in fall 2027 needs, in order. Screenshot this.

Verify current dates at USHE and on each college’s financial aid page before relying on them. College dates in this table come from the colleges’ published pages and the CRP database as of October 2026.

How Utah Aid Interacts With Colleges

The Opportunity Scholarship is paid after other state aid, and the campus full-tuition programs are paid after everything. That ordering explains most of the confusing numbers families see on Utah aid offers.

• Pell and other federal grants go first. They are not reduced by state aid.
• The Opportunity Scholarship goes toward tuition and general student fees after other state aid, such as the Utah Promise Grant. If the Promise Grant already covered most of tuition, the Opportunity payment that semester is smaller.
• Last-dollar programs go last. For Utah, Utah Promise at the U, Utah State Promise, Dream Weber, and Greenlight fill whatever tuition gap remains. They often show a smaller number than the headline because other aid already did the work.
• Total aid cannot exceed the cost of attendance. Cost of attendance (COA) is the college’s official all-in yearly budget: tuition, fees, books, housing, food, and transportation.

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 Utah Aid Gets Lost

These are the patterns that cost Utah families money 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 Utah, and the one most families in it do not recognize. A Pell-eligible student has a full-tuition program waiting at the University of Utah (For Utah, at a 3.2 GPA), Utah State (Utah State Promise), Weber State (Dream Weber), and UVU (Greenlight), plus the statewide Utah Promise Grant. The thing to guard is the calendar, not the eligibility.

Middle-income families

Utah has one program built for you that most states do not: the University of Utah’s Utah Promise, for families with income and assets each under $100,000 and a student with a 3.5 unweighted GPA. The Opportunity Scholarship has no income test at all. Beyond those, affordability comes down to each college’s own merit awards, which makes where you apply the biggest financial decision in the process.

High-achieving students

Students who test poorly

Utah is unusually good to you. The Opportunity Scholarship has no test requirement. The University of Utah’s automatic awards and its For Utah and Utah Promise programs are based on GPA, and Utah State’s lower resident tiers do not require a test score. Some schools, including UVU and SUU, still use ACT or SAT cutoffs for their grids, so check each one.

Adult and returning students

This one is for the parents reading. The Utah Promise Grant is open to adult Utah residents, not just recent graduates. The Adult Learner Grant funds online programs in high-need fields, the Technical Education Scholarship funds certificates, and Dream Weber accepts returning students. Plenty of first-generation parents finish a credential alongside their student.

First-gen families

Same eligibility as everyone else, higher risk of losing it to a missed step. The T.H. Bell Education Scholarship gives first-generation students priority. Utah aid is process aid: the December admission date, the FAFSA parent section, the January application window, the deferment form. 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 Utah Aid

The Opportunity Scholarship pays the same maximum at every eligible school. So the real question is not where state aid goes furthest. It is which college adds the most on top, at the numbers your student actually has. Below are the Utah universities currently in the CRP database with verified award tiers. Each college page carries the full grid; this section tells you how each school pays and when.

Automatic full tuition for Pell-eligible families

• University of Utah (Salt Lake City): For Utah and Utah Promise, described above. Freshman merit awards are decided off the admission application, and the tiers in our database are set by GPA alone. Admission December 1; FAFSA February 1. To keep them: full time all eight semesters, a 3.0 GPA (For Utah) or 3.5 (Utah Promise), and a FAFSA every year.
• Utah State University (Logan and statewide campuses): Utah State Promise covers resident tuition and student body fees after Pell for Pell-eligible residents, for up to eight semesters, with a 2.0 renewal GPA. It does not pay differential tuition or class fees. Admission by February 1. USU’s automatic merit awards use December 1, 2026, and the lower resident tiers need no test score.
• Weber State University (Ogden): Dream Weber covers full-time resident tuition and general fees for Pell-eligible Utah residents, for up to eight semesters. It requires a separate application in Scholarship Universe, opening October 1, with priority on December 4, 2026. Reapply every year. Automatic merit comes from the admission application, deadline February 1.
• Utah Valley University (Orem): Greenlight covers remaining tuition, not fees, for Pell-eligible residents enrolled full time in a first bachelor’s degree. No separate application; the financial aid file is due February 1. UVU’s merit grid uses ACT or SAT scores with the GPA, deadline February 1.

The clean automatic grids

• Southern Utah University (Cedar City): automatic resident tiers based on GPA plus ACT or SAT, deadline March 1. The competitive President’s Scholarship requires admission by December 1 with no later round. The T-Bird Promise is a separate need-based application with an essay, priority December 1.
• Utah Tech University (St. George): automatic resident tiers starting at a 3.0 GPA. Deadline March 1. Need-based students get the statewide Utah Promise Grant here under the name Trailblazer Promise.

A different model entirely

• Brigham Young University (Provo, private): no automatic grid. Every freshman scholarship, merit or need-based, requires the separate BYU scholarship application, and BYU uses the highest test score it has by that deadline. BYU’s own pages show both January 2 and February 1, 2027 for freshmen; meet January 2 and call BYU Financial Aid to confirm. BYU’s FAFSA date is January 20. The Opportunity Scholarship and Utah Promise Grant both pay at BYU’s Provo campus.

Not yet in our database. We have not verified award tiers for these Utah schools, so we are not going to publish anything about their scholarships beyond what is on this page. State aid applies at all of them unless noted. Publics: Salt Lake Community College, Snow College (Ephraim and Richfield), and the eight USHE technical colleges (Bridgerland, Davis, Dixie, Mountainland, Ogden-Weber, Southwest, Tooele, Uintah Basin; the Opportunity Scholarship can be deferred while attending one). Privates that take Utah state aid: Westminster University (Salt Lake City), Ensign College (Salt Lake City), and Western Governors University (online). We would rather leave them without numbers than publish a guess.

The two-year and transfer pathway

The Opportunity Scholarship transfers between eligible schools, and the campus full-tuition programs do not. A student who starts at Salt Lake Community College or Snow College and moves to a university keeps the Opportunity Scholarship and the Utah Promise Grant. They leave behind any campus-specific award.

Three cautions. First, the Opportunity Scholarship covers four semesters in total, so a student who uses all four at a two-year college arrives at the university with none left. Second, to transfer it, the student must notify both financial aid offices before the new semester starts; the new school confirms eligibility with the old one. Third, the Utah Promise Grant ends at a first bachelor’s degree or 120 attempted credits, and credits that do not transfer still count as attempted.

USHE’s Utah Transfer Guide shows how general education and major courses move between public schools. Weber State and UVU publish automatic transfer merit awards; see their college pages.

Tip: confirm your Utah programs here, then open each college’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 Utah Programs Worth Checking

These do not apply to everyone, but when one applies to your family it matters. All are administered by USHE; most are applied for through the college.

Full list and current rules: USHE state scholarships and aid.

Utah State Aid FAQs

Does the Utah Opportunity Scholarship require four years of math or a foreign language?

No. That course list belonged to the old Regents’ Scholarship, which ended after the Class of 2022. The Opportunity Scholarship requires a 3.3 cumulative high school GPA and one AP, IB, or concurrent enrollment course in each of language arts, math, and science, completed in grades 9 through 12. Students must also graduate from a Utah high school, submit the FAFSA, and submit the online application by the deadline.

How much is the Utah Opportunity Scholarship?

USHE sets a maximum for each graduating class based on funding and the number of qualified applicants. The Class of 2026 maximum is $800 per semester for up to four semesters, and the Classes of 2022 through 2025 received up to $1,000 per semester. The Class of 2027 amount has not been set. The award is applied to tuition and general student fees after other state aid, so individual semester payments vary.

What is the Opportunity Scholarship deadline for 2027?

For the Class of 2027, the application window runs from January 5 to March 19, 2027, with a priority deadline of February 5, 2027. The 2027–28 FAFSA must also be submitted by the deadline. USHE emails every applicant on May 7, 2027, and students who do not receive that email should contact the scholarship office at 801-646-4812 right away.

Does the Utah Opportunity Scholarship require an ACT score?

No. The Opportunity Scholarship does not require an ACT or SAT score. Eligibility is based on a 3.3 GPA, three advanced courses, a submitted FAFSA, and graduation from a Utah high school. Individual colleges may still use test scores for their own scholarships.

Can you lose the Utah Opportunity Scholarship?

Yes. Recipients must enroll full time at an eligible school each fall and spring, or obtain an approved deferment or leave of absence. They must earn credit for every course the scholarship paid for and meet satisfactory academic progress, typically a 3.0 semester GPA. A first GPA miss leads to probation, a second forfeits the remaining payments, and missing the credit requirement has no probation. The scholarship expires five years after high school graduation.

Can you get both the Opportunity Scholarship and the Utah Promise Grant?

Yes, but they do not simply add together. The Opportunity Scholarship is applied to tuition and general fees after other state aid, including the Utah Promise Grant, so a student with a large Promise Grant may receive a smaller Opportunity payment. The Utah Promise Grant can be used up to the full cost of attendance, which means it is the one that can reach housing.

Is the Utah Promise Grant the same as the University of Utah’s Utah Promise?

No. The Utah Promise Grant is a statewide need-based grant administered by USHE and awarded by each campus. The University of Utah’s Utah Promise is a separate scholarship that covers tuition and mandatory fees for Utah residents with a 3.5 unweighted GPA and family income and assets each under $100,000, with admission by December 1 and the FAFSA by February 1. The University of Utah says a student can be eligible for both.

Does Utah state aid cover housing?

Mostly not. The Opportunity Scholarship pays toward tuition and general fees only, and the colleges’ full-tuition programs such as For Utah, Utah State Promise, Dream Weber, and Greenlight do not cover housing or books. The exception is the statewide Utah Promise Grant, which can be used up to the full cost of attendance, including housing and food.