Kansas State Scholarship

Scholarship Sponsored by Kansas Board of Regents

Introduction The Kansas State Scholarship helps Kansas high school seniors who are designated as State Scholars and demonstrate financial need. The award targets students in roughly the top 40–50% of Kansas high school graduates who earn State Scholar status during their senior year.

Eligibility To be eligible to apply, during your senior year at a Kansas high school you must have:

• received confirmation that you completed the Kansas Scholars Curriculum (a certificate or notification); and
• been designated a Kansas State Scholar by the Kansas Board of Regents (a designation letter or notification).

Designation is determined using an index that combines your ACT composite score with your seventh-semester GPA. All applicants must file the FAFSA and the State of Kansas Student Aid Application each year. The number of students designated as State Scholars depends on available state funding, and awards are allocated based on demonstrated financial need and any other outside scholarships you receive. It is the student’s responsibility to submit the scholarship application each academic year.

Award details

• Amount: Up to $1,000 per academic year ($500 per semester), awarded according to need as calculated by the Federal Methodology from FAFSA data and subject to state fund availability.
• Duration: Renewable for up to four undergraduate years (or five years if enrolled in a qualifying five-year program).
• Enrollment and academic requirements: To receive funds, scholars must be enrolled at least half-time (minimum 12 credit hours per semester) and maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA. Recipients must continue to demonstrate financial need.
• Notification and disbursement: The Kansas Board of Regents does not directly notify students about award funding. Your college will inform you if you qualify and the scholarship payment will be sent to the institution in early August.
• Reapplication: If you are not financially eligible in a given year, you may become eligible later; therefore you should reapply each year to determine current eligibility.

How designation is determined and the timeline To be considered for designation as a Kansas State Scholar, a student should:

1. Take the ACT by December of the senior year;
2. Complete the Kansas Scholars Curriculum in high school;
   • Your high school counselor or registrar normally reports your KSC completion to the Kansas Board of Regents automatically (typically between February and April);
3. Graduate during the 2026–2027 academic year; and
4. Be selected as a Kansas State Scholar by the Kansas Board of Regents, based on the index combining ACT and seventh-semester GPA.

Each year about 5,000 students complete the Kansas Scholars Curriculum; approximately one-half of those students (roughly 2,500) are designated as Kansas State Scholars.