State financial aid deadlines
25 verified state financial aid deadlines, soonest first, starting October 15, 2026. Each date links to the school or agency page it came from.
What a state financial aid deadline is
Every state runs its own grants and scholarships, and they are the aid students most often miss, because the deadline belongs to the state rather than to any school on your list. Some states award off the FAFSA with no separate form. Others have an application of their own. A few ask you to claim the money years early, while you are still in middle school. What they have in common is that the date applies to you as a resident, whichever college you end up at.
If you miss one: State grant money is usually first come, first served, and once a state's round closes there is no appeal and no late window. This is the aid that gets left on the table.
Every date we have
Verified against the page it came from, soonest first.
- 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.
- 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 about a month
TN Promise application deadline for the class of 2027
TN Promise covers tuition and mandatory fees at any of Tennessee's community colleges, its colleges of applied technology, or a four-year institution offering an associate degree. It is a last-dollar award, so it pays what the Pell Grant, the HOPE Scholarship and the Tennessee Student Assistance Award have not already covered. Seniors apply in the THEC Student Portal in the autumn of senior year, and the application is the first of four things the programme asks for: after it come a mandatory meeting, the FAFSA, and community service.
If you miss it: There is no late window. A senior who misses the November date is out of TN Promise for good, which for a student heading to a community college is usually the difference between free tuition and paying it.
- State aidin about 3 months
Oklahoma's Promise, last chance for high school seniors
Oklahoma's Promise pays tuition at an Oklahoma public college for students whose families are under the income limit, and it is one of the few awards you have to claim years before you use it. Most students enrol in eighth, ninth or tenth grade. December 31 of senior year is the last date the state will take an application at all, it has to be submitted electronically or postmarked by then, and it has to arrive before your official graduation date.
If you miss it: This is a cutoff, not a priority date. A senior who reaches January without applying has lost the award permanently, because there is no route into Oklahoma's Promise after high school.
- State aidin about 4 months
Texas state priority deadline for financial aid
Texas does not run its aid from one central deadline. It sets a single priority date, January 15, and most of its public universities use it to decide who gets considered first for the money they have. File either the FAFSA or, if you cannot file a FAFSA, the Texas Application for State Financial Aid, and get it to the college's financial aid office with everything it asked for. Each institution decides for itself what counts as meeting the date, so the college is the one to ask.
If you miss it: This is a priority date rather than a cutoff. Applying after it still leaves you eligible, and applying before it does not guarantee funding, but state money is limited and the students in front of you are the ones who filed on time.
- State aidin about 4 months
Bright Futures application closes for mid-year graduates
Florida treats a student who finishes high school between September 1 and January 31 as a mid-year graduate, and gives them a different date. Their Florida Financial Aid Application closes on January 31 rather than the following August, and test scores taken on or before January 31 are the ones counted in their final evaluation. It is the same form and the same four awards, on a schedule that ends seven months earlier.
If you miss it: A mid-year graduate who waits for the August date has missed their own deadline by then, and there is no Bright Futures award for that year.
- State aidin about 4 months
Access Missouri priority deadline, file the FAFSA
Access Missouri is the state's need-based grant, and February 1 is the date worth aiming at. There is no separate Missouri application: the state receives FAFSA records for Missouri residents straight from the federal government. What the priority deadline buys you is certainty. Missouri guarantees an award to eligible students who file on or before it, while everyone after that is competing for whatever funding is left.
If you miss it: File after February 1 and your award stops being guaranteed and starts depending on how much money is left and how many people applied. Missouri sets a separate award deadline somewhere between February 1 and April 1 each year based on funding, and only announces where it landed in August.
- State aidin about 5 months
New Jersey spring-only state aid deadline
New Jersey keeps a second, smaller door open. If your FAFSA or New Jersey Alternative Financial Aid Application is processed after the September 15 date but by February 15, 2027, HESAA will consider you for state aid for the spring 2027 term only. It is one semester of help rather than two, and the same processing rule applies: the date that counts is when the federal processor finished, not when you hit submit.
If you miss it: Half a year of Tuition Aid Grant instead of a full one, and nothing at all if February 15 also passes.
- 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.
- 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
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.
- 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
West Virginia PROMISE Scholarship application and FAFSA
West Virginia puts its merit scholarship and its aid form on the same day. The PROMISE Scholarship pays up to $4,750 toward tuition and fees for eligible West Virginia high school graduates, and its application stays open until March 1. The FAFSA is due to the state that same day, which also matters for the need-based West Virginia Higher Education Grant. One date, two things to have finished.
If you miss it: PROMISE is a four-year award for students who qualify, so a missed March 1 is not one year of tuition but potentially all of it.
- State aidin about 5 months
Cal Grant deadline for the FAFSA or CADAA, and your GPA
March 2 is the one California date that decides most state grant money. Filing the FAFSA (the free federal aid form), or the California Dream Act Application for students who cannot file a FAFSA, by this date is what puts you in line for a Cal Grant. Your GPA has to reach the California Student Aid Commission by the same day, and for most high school seniors the school sends it for you, so the thing to check is that it actually went. There is no separate Cal Grant form: the FAFSA or CADAA is the application, and a Cal Grant A or B can cover systemwide tuition at a UC or CSU outright.
If you miss it: Miss March 2 and you are out of the main Cal Grant competition for that year, whatever your family earns and however strong your grades are. The one exception is community college, which has a second deadline in September.
- State aidin about 6 months
Mississippi HELP grant closes, six months before the others
The Higher Education Legislative Plan is Mississippi's need-based award, and it pays full tuition at a state college for a graduating senior who qualifies. It uses the same Mississippi Aid Application as the other grants but closes on March 31, almost six months before them, which is the trap: a student who files in the summer has met the MTAG deadline and missed this one entirely.
If you miss it: HELP covers full tuition where MTAG covers a few hundred dollars, so missing March 31 is the most expensive way to be late in Mississippi.
- 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 6 months
Access Missouri final deadline
April 1 is the last date Missouri will look at a FAFSA for Access Missouri at all. Between the February 1 priority deadline and this one, the state sets an award deadline based on how much money it has and how many eligible students applied, and that line only ever moves later, toward April 1, to let more students in. After April 1 there is no line left to move.
If you miss it: No Access Missouri grant for that academic year. If you did file in time, you have until July 31 to fix a FAFSA error that affected your eligibility, and your status is locked on August 1.
- State aidin about 7 months
Indiana state aid deadline, file the FAFSA
Indiana runs almost all of its state aid off one date. Filing the FAFSA by April 15 is what makes you eligible for the Frank O'Bannon Grant, which covers both the Higher Education Award and the Freedom of Choice Award, and it is also the annual step a 21st Century Scholar has to take from senior year onward to keep a scholarship that pays up to four years of tuition. There is no separate state application. Since 2023 the deadline has also been a requirement in its own right: state law asks every Indiana high school senior to file a FAFSA or formally opt out by April 15.
If you miss it: Indiana's need-based aid is not awarded to a late filer. A 21st Century Scholar who misses April 15 can lose an award already promised, which is the most expensive missed form in the state.
- State aidin about 7 months
Kansas Education Opportunity Scholarship closes
The Kansas Education Opportunity Scholarship is aimed at two groups working on a first undergraduate degree: first-generation college students, and the children of Kansas teachers and paraprofessionals. It has its own application through the Board of Regents, separate from the FAFSA, and it closes on May 1. Kansas also runs a Comprehensive Grant for students with financial need, which has no application at all and is awarded off the FAFSA, so filing that early matters for a different reason.
If you miss it: No scholarship for that year. The application is annual, so the date comes round again whether you are applying for the first time or renewing.
- 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.
- State aidin about 9 months
MASSGrant deadline for the FAFSA or MASFA
MASSGrant is Massachusetts's need-based grant for undergraduates who are state residents, and eligibility runs off the FAFSA or, for students who cannot file one, the Massachusetts state application. The Department of Higher Education sets the filing deadline for each academic year.
If you miss it: No MASSGrant consideration for that academic year.
- State aidin about 9 months
Oklahoma's Promise, recommended deadline for grades 8 to 11
Oklahoma asks students to sign up for its tuition promise while they are still in middle or early high school, and June 30 is the date the state recommends. Enrolling early is not only about the paperwork: the award depends on taking a required set of high school courses and keeping a 2.5 grade point average, and a student who signs up in eighth grade still has time to build a schedule that meets it.
If you miss it: Nothing is lost on this exact day, since applications stay open until December 31 of senior year. What a late applicant loses is the chance to fix a course schedule that no longer meets the requirements.
- State aidin about 9 months
New York TAP application deadline for the 2026-27 year
The Tuition Assistance Program is New York's main grant for residents attending college in the state, and it is money you do not repay. TAP has its own application, separate from the FAFSA, though the usual route is to finish the FAFSA and then follow the link to the TAP application in the same session. HESC accepts the application for a given academic year from October 1 of the year before until June 30 of the academic year itself, a window of about 21 months, and you have to file a new one every year you want an award.
If you miss it: Nothing else New York offers moves without this form: HESC states that a student must submit a TAP application by June 30 of the academic year to receive any state-sponsored award or scholarship. Miss it and the whole state aid package for that year is gone, not just TAP.
- State aidin about 11 months
Bright Futures application closes for the class of 2027
Bright Futures is Florida's lottery-funded scholarship, and it is claimed through the Florida Financial Aid Application rather than the FAFSA. One form covers all four awards: Academic Scholars, Medallion Scholars, and the two Gold Seal awards for career and technical students. The window for the class of 2027 runs from October 1, 2026 to August 31, 2027, which is the summer after you graduate, so there is time after results arrive. Test scores count if the exam was taken on or before August 31 of your graduation year, and you may retest as often as you like until then.
If you miss it: Bright Futures pays a share of tuition for four years, and the application is the only way in. Nothing about qualifying academically reaches the state on its own.
- State aidin about 11 months
Cal Grant deadline for California Community College students
California holds a second Cal Grant deadline open for students heading to a California Community College. If you missed March 2, or you decided on community college later, filing the FAFSA or California Dream Act Application by September 2 still puts you in the running for a Cal Grant competitive award. It is a smaller pool than the March round and the awards are competitive rather than guaranteed, so it is a second chance rather than an equal one.
If you miss it: Miss both March 2 and September 2 and there is no Cal Grant for that academic year at all.
Deadlines that come with it
Don't keep checking this page
Give us an email address and we'll write 30, 14, and 3 days before every state financial aid deadlines deadline. No account, no card.