Maryland college application and financial aid deadlines
Deadlines for 13 Maryland colleges, plus the 12 Maryland state aid deadlines that apply wherever you enrol. Every date is checked against the page it came from, and that page is linked beside it.
Maryland state aid
For Maryland residents, whichever school they end up at.
- State aidin 16 days
Workforce Shortage Student Assistance Grant (WSSAG), closes October 15, 2026
WSSAG is for students going into a field Maryland is short on: teaching, nursing, child care, social work, physical or occupational therapy, human services, law, or public service. In exchange you agree to work in that field in Maryland after you graduate.
If you miss it: Miss October 15 and the student loses $1,000 to $4,000 per year that is renewable for up to five years.
- State aidin 16 days
2+2 Transfer Scholarship, application closes October 15, 2026
The 2+2 Transfer Scholarship helps Maryland community college students moving on to a four-year Maryland college. Apply through the MHEC One-App in MDCAPS and have your FAFSA filed by the same date. The 2026-27 window closes October 15, 2026.
If you miss it: Miss October 15 and the student gets nothing from this program for the 2026-27 year and must wait a full year to apply again.
- Documentsin about 2 months
2+2 Transfer Scholarship, transcript due November 15, 2026
Applying for the 2+2 Transfer Scholarship is only step one. You also have to upload a community college transcript showing your current cumulative GPA by November 15, 2026, then a final transcript proving your associate's degree by February 15, 2027.
If you miss it: The application is thrown out if these transcripts are not uploaded on time, even though the October 15 application deadline was met.
- State aidin about 5 months
Howard P. Rawlings Educational Assistance (EA) Grant, FAFSA or MHEC One-App deadline
The EA Grant is Maryland's main need-based grant for undergraduates, worth up to $3,000 a year. There's no separate application: you're considered automatically if your FAFSA or MHEC One-App is filed by March 1 and lists at least one Maryland college.
If you miss it: If the FAFSA or One-App is filed even one day after March 1, you are not considered for the EA Grant that year and can only fall back to the smaller campus-based version of the grant if the college happens to have money left.
- State aidin about 5 months
Maryland Part-Time Grant, FAFSA or MHEC One-App by March 1
If you're going part-time (3 to 11 credits a semester), most Maryland grants don't apply but this one does. Awards run $200 to $2,000 a year and your college picks who gets it. File the FAFSA or MHEC One-App by March 1, then call its financial aid office.
If you miss it: Part-time students who miss March 1 lose access to the one Maryland state grant designed specifically for them.
- Scholarshipsin about 5 months
Maryland Delegate Scholarship, FAFSA by March 1, plus your delegate's own deadline
Maryland state delegates also award scholarships to students in their district, from $200 up to about $14,000 a year. As with the senatorial scholarship, you apply through your delegate's office on their schedule, and the FAFSA (or MHEC One-App) must be filed by March 1 if the delegate asks the state to choose recipients. This one is not automatically renewed, you have to reapply to the delegate every single year.
If you miss it: Missing the delegate's application deadline or the March 1 FAFSA date means no award, and forgetting to reapply the following year silently ends the scholarship.
- State aidin about 5 months
Maryland state aid priority deadline, file the FAFSA or MHEC One-App by March 1
March 1 is Maryland's single most important financial aid date. Filing the FAFSA (the free federal aid form), or the MHEC One-App, Maryland's separate state form for students who cannot file a FAFSA, by this date is what puts you in line for most Maryland state grants and scholarships, including the Educational Assistance Grant, the Guaranteed Access Grant, the Part-Time Grant, and legislative scholarships. You do not fill out a separate application for most of these; the FAFSA is the application.
If you miss it: Miss March 1 and you are shut out of most Maryland state grant money for that school year, no matter how much financial need you have.
- State aidin about 5 months
Howard P. Rawlings Guaranteed Access (GA) Grant, FAFSA or MHEC One-App deadline
The GA Grant is Maryland's largest state grant for lower-income families, up to $18,000 a year for full-time students. To qualify, family income generally has to be at or below 130% of the federal poverty guideline (about $40,560 for a household of four in the 2026-27 year) and the student must be young enough to meet the age rule. Like the EA Grant, there is no separate form: filing the FAFSA or MHEC One-App by March 1 is the application.
If you miss it: Miss March 1 and your family forfeits up to $18,000 per year in grant money that does not have to be paid back.
- Scholarshipsin about 5 months
Maryland Senatorial Scholarship, FAFSA by March 1, plus your senator's own deadline
Every Maryland state senator hands out scholarship money to students in their district, worth between $400 and about $14,000 a year. There are two moving parts: your senator's own application, whose deadline is set by that senator's office and is different in every district, and the FAFSA (or MHEC One-App), which must be filed by March 1 if the senator lets the state office pick the winners. Look up your district's senator at mgaleg.maryland.gov and call the office to get their form and their date.
If you miss it: Missing either the senator's own deadline or the March 1 FAFSA date knocks you out of a scholarship that can be worth over $14,000 a year.
- State aidin about 6 months
Maryland Community College Promise Scholarship, April 1 deadline
The Promise Scholarship covers up to $5,000 of tuition and mandatory fees left at a Maryland community college after other aid. Income must be under $100,000 for a single-parent household, $150,000 for two, and you need a 2.3 GPA. It's due April 1, not March 1.
If you miss it: Miss April 1 and you pay full community college tuition out of pocket for that year instead of having up to $5,000 wiped out.
- State aidin about 8 months
Maryland 529 Save4College State Contribution Program, May 31 deadline
Maryland will drop $250 or $500 of free money into your Maryland College Investment Plan (529 savings account) each year if your household income is under the limit and you apply during the window. For 2027 the window opens January 1, 2027 and closes at 11:59 pm Eastern on May 31, 2027. Applying is not enough on its own, you must also put your own minimum contribution ($25, $100 or $250 depending on income) into the account by 11:59 pm Eastern on November 1 of the same year.
If you miss it: Miss the May 31 application window or the November 1 contribution and Maryland keeps its $250-$500 for that year; you cannot claim it retroactively.
- Documentsin about 10 months
EA and GA Grant documentation deadline, August 1
Maryland may ask for extra paperwork proving income or household size before it releases an EA or Guaranteed Access Grant. Not everyone gets asked, but if you are, upload the documents to your MDCAPS account by August 1. Check MDCAPS through the spring and summer.
If you miss it: If requested documents are not uploaded by August 1, the grant is cancelled even though the March 1 deadline was met on time.
Deadlines that apply to everyone
Federal dates, whichever schools you apply to.
- FAFSAin 2 days
FAFSA opens for 2027-28 aid year
The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the single form that decides whether you get federal grants, work-study, or subsidized loans. Almost every college also uses it to hand out their own money, so filing it matters even if you are sure you earn too much to qualify. The U.S. Department of Education has publicly committed to releasing the 2027-28 form, the one you need for college starting in fall 2027, by October 1, 2026, and is running public beta tests through August and September 2026 ahead of that release.
If you miss it: Nothing is lost on this exact day, but every week you wait after the form opens is a week closer to your state's and your colleges' much earlier aid cutoffs, and some aid is handed out first-come, first-served until the money runs out.
- CSS Profilein 2 days
CSS Profile opens for 2027-28 aid year
The CSS Profile is a second, longer financial aid application run by the College Board (the SAT people), not the government. Roughly a few hundred mostly private colleges and scholarship programs require it on top of the FAFSA because it digs deeper into things like home equity, small business value, and non-custodial parent income, to award their own institutional money. College Board states that students file it starting on October 1 of senior year, and it is free for domestic undergraduate families with income up to $100,000; otherwise it costs $25 for the first college and $16 for each additional one.
If you miss it: Only applies if one of your colleges requires it, but at a college that does, skipping the CSS Profile means you are simply not considered for that school's own grant aid, which is often the largest single piece of an award letter.
- Depositin about 7 months
Decision Day: pick your college and pay the deposit
This is the day you choose. May 1 is the National Candidates Reply Date, the date most colleges use as the deadline to accept your offer and pay an enrollment deposit, which is what actually holds your seat. Being admitted does not reserve anything on its own. One important catch: colleges set their own reply dates, and since 2019 no organisation enforces May 1, so a school on your list may want an answer earlier or may give you longer. Check the date printed on each offer letter and go by that, not by this one. If you are still waiting on an appeal or a revised aid offer, ask for an extension in writing before the date rather than after it.
If you miss it: Miss the date on your offer letter and the college can give your place to somebody on the waitlist. A deposit paid before the reply date is usually refundable if you change your mind; after it, it almost never is. This is the last decision in the whole process that costs real money to get wrong.
- FAFSAin about 9 months
FAFSA 2026-27 federal submission deadline
This is the final federal cutoff for the 2026-27 FAFSA, covering college between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027. It must reach the Department's FAFSA Processing System by 11:59 p.m. Central Time. If you never filed or never finished, fix it now.
If you miss it: After this date you are permanently locked out of federal grants, work-study, and federal loans for the 2026-27 school year, and most colleges will not release their own need-based aid either.
- FAFSAin about 12 months
FAFSA 2026-27 corrections deadline
After you submit a FAFSA, you can go back and fix mistakes: a mistyped income figure, a wrong Social Security number, or a college you added later. This is the last date the government accepts changes for 2026-27, by 11:59 p.m. Central Time.
If you miss it: An error left uncorrected after this date is frozen permanently, which can mean your aid for 2026-27 is calculated on wrong numbers and cannot be recalculated.
- Documentsin about 12 months
FAFSA 2026-27 verification documents deadline
Verification is an audit: some FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) filers get picked, at random or because something looked inconsistent, and the college asks for paperwork such as tax transcripts, W-2s, or a signed statement, to prove what was reported. Being selected is routine and is not an accusation. This is the outside federal date by which the college must have your documents in hand for the 2026-27 school year; note that your own college will almost always demand them far sooner, and the true deadline is whichever comes first.
If you miss it: If verification is not completed, the college must cancel any federal grant or loan money not yet paid out, and you can be billed back for aid already applied to their account.
Maryland colleges
Each with its own application and aid dates.
- Bowie State University5 dates, next December 1, 2026
- Coppin State University2 dates, next March 1, 2027
- Frostburg State University2 dates, next March 1, 2027
- Johns Hopkins University6 dates, next November 1, 2026
- Loyola University Maryland7 dates, next November 15, 2026
- Morgan State University4 dates, next December 1, 2026
- Mount St. Mary's University2 dates, next November 1, 2026
- Salisbury University5 dates, next November 15, 2026
- St. Mary's College of Maryland4 dates, next November 1, 2026
- Towson University6 dates, next November 1, 2026
- University of Maryland Eastern Shore3 dates, next January 15, 2027
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County4 dates, next November 1, 2026
- University of Maryland, College Park6 dates, next November 1, 2026
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