CollegeCounts Scholarship Alabama 2026-27: How to Secure $4,000 for Your Freshman Year

CollegeCounts Scholarship Alabama 2026-27: How to Secure $4,000 for Your Freshman Year

At-a-glance overview

The CollegeCounts Scholarship is a need-based award for Alabama students who are preparing to begin college in Alabama. The Office of the Alabama State Treasurer’s official CollegeCounts page currently lists applicants who are high school seniors or first-time college freshmen beginning in fall 2026. Applicants must also be U.S. citizens, Alabama residents, students with financial need, and students planning to enroll at an eligible Alabama educational institution.

The current application window opens December 1, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. CST and closes February 28, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. CST. This is an announced upcoming window, so students should use the months before opening to check their records and decide whether their intended school is an eligible fit.

What the CollegeCounts Scholarship provides

This is freshman-year assistance rather than a recurring award. The official page lists an annual award of $4,000 for a student enrolling at a four-year college and $2,000 for a student enrolling at a two-year college. The award is non-renewable. It is granted on a semester basis during the recipient’s first academic year, with payments issued for the fall and spring semesters.

The money is not described as unrestricted cash. Payment is mailed to the accepted institution, made payable to the institution, and credited to the student’s account. The program says the scholarship must be applied to tuition, fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for the student’s course load, including computers. It may also be used for on-campus room and board or qualifying off-campus housing when the student is enrolled at least half-time and the housing is billed through the school. Room-and-board treatment must follow the qualified-education-expense rules referenced by the official page.

That payment structure matters when you build a college budget. Treat the award as help with eligible education charges at your school. Do not plan on receiving the award as a personal bank deposit for unrelated expenses. Also leave room in your plan for costs that the scholarship will not cover or that do not appear as qualified charges on the institution’s account.

Eligibility for the 2026-27 cycle

The official page says applicants must meet every listed requirement. Review the full set before you begin an application:

Student status and entry timing

You must be a high school senior or a first-time college freshman beginning in fall 2026. The program is designed for students at the point of entering college, not for students who are already established in later undergraduate years. If you are unsure whether your enrollment history makes you a first-time freshman, resolve that question with your school before relying on this scholarship in your funding plan.

Alabama residency and U.S. citizenship

You must be a U.S. citizen and an Alabama resident. Use consistent information wherever the application asks for identity, residence, or school details. The public program page does not replace the application’s own eligibility review, so do not assume that living near Alabama or planning to move there satisfies the residency rule.

Financial need

CollegeCounts is need-based. You must demonstrate financial need through the application process. Prepare the financial information the application requests and enter it carefully. Need is also the first criterion in the program’s stated selection order, so it is a central part of the review rather than an optional supporting detail.

GPA and ACT

The minimum GPA listed by the program is 2.75. The page also lists an ACT score of 29 or below. Applicants attending a two-year school are not required to submit ACT scores. This means your intended enrollment path affects how you should read the ACT requirement: a four-year applicant should be ready to report an ACT score within the published limit, while a two-year applicant does not need to submit one under the stated rule.

Eligible Alabama institution

You must plan to enroll at an eligible Alabama educational institution. The scholarship FAQ describes eligible schools as accredited, nonprofit two-year or four-year colleges and universities in Alabama. Check the status of your intended institution before submitting the application, especially if you are comparing a public college, private nonprofit college, community college, or another type of program.

Homeschooled applicants and 529 accounts

The official FAQ says homeschooled students can apply. It also says that having a CollegeCounts 529 savings account is not required. Those two answers remove two common sources of confusion, but they do not remove the remaining citizenship, residency, entry, GPA, financial-need, and eligible-school requirements.

How selection works

The CollegeCounts Board of Directors uses objectively measurable criteria in this priority order:

1. Financial need
2. ACT score for four-year school applicants
3. High school GPA
4. Work and activities
5. Service and honors or awards

Use that order to organize your preparation. First make sure your financial information is complete and consistent. Then check that your intended school path is correct and that any ACT information for a four-year application is accurate. Review your GPA before submission, and then complete the activities, service, and honors sections with truthful information. The published criteria do not make activities or awards a substitute for a missed core eligibility requirement.

Application window and preparation plan

The application opens December 1, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. CST and closes February 28, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. CST. Since the program has published the window in advance, use the time before opening to prepare without guessing at an earlier deadline.

Before the application opens

Confirm that you fit the student-status rule and that your intended college is an eligible Alabama institution. Decide whether you are applying for a two-year or four-year enrollment path. That decision affects the award amount and whether you need to provide an ACT score. Gather the accurate versions of your legal name, contact information, school information, GPA, and any applicable ACT information. Also identify the financial details you will need to provide to demonstrate need.

Do not manufacture a document checklist from this page. The public summary describes the eligibility rules and application process, but it does not publish a fixed upload list in the text shown. Prepare accurate information and follow the portal’s instructions when the application is available.

When the application opens

Use the Apply for a Scholarship link on the official Treasurer page. The link opens the CollegeCounts application portal. Create the account with an email address you will continue monitoring. The official FAQ says the account lets you monitor your application status through completion, so keep the login details in a secure place and return to the account if a section needs attention.

Enter personal, enrollment, academic, and financial information exactly as requested. Before moving on, check that your school path is consistent with the award category you intend to receive. Four-year applicants should review the ACT entry carefully. Two-year applicants should follow the portal’s instructions for the no-ACT path rather than entering a score simply because they have one.

Before submitting

Read every section for consistency. Confirm the spelling of your name, your contact email, your Alabama residency information, your intended institution, your entry status, your GPA, and your financial information. Check that the application represents the same two-year or four-year path throughout. Save or record the portal’s confirmation and continue monitoring the account until the application shows as complete.

Submit before the listed closing time on February 28, 2027. Waiting until the final hours creates avoidable risk if the portal needs a correction or your account shows an incomplete section. A saved draft is not the same as a submitted application, so verify the status after completing the final step.

What happens after submission

The official page says notifications will be sent by email by the end of April to award recipients and applicants who are not selected. Add [email protected] to your address book or safe-senders list so an important message is less likely to be filtered as junk. If you receive an award notification, an Acceptance link will appear on the application home page.

Recipients must be enrolled as an undergraduate in the fall of the year in which the scholarship is awarded and must continue in school for the entire academic year without interruption unless the sponsor approves otherwise. The scholarship must be used during both the fall and spring semesters of that same academic year. Keep the college informed if your enrollment plan changes, because the award’s payment and continuation rules depend on enrollment.

Payments are sent to the accepted institution for credit to the student account. Before counting the scholarship in your final budget, ask the school how it will apply the payment and which eligible charges will remain after other aid is considered. The award can make a meaningful difference to first-year costs, but its non-renewable structure means you also need a plan for later years.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most avoidable errors are choosing the wrong enrollment path, entering inconsistent academic information, overlooking the financial-need section, and assuming the award renews. Another mistake is treating the February closing date as a date to begin rather than a final submission point. Start when the portal opens, keep your account accessible, and check the completion status before the window closes.

Remember that the program’s four-year and two-year amounts are different, and the two-year ACT rule is specific to applicants attending a two-year school. Do not generalize that exception to a four-year application. Finally, do not assume a CollegeCounts 529 account is required: the official FAQ expressly says it is not.

Official application and assistance

Start with the Office of the Alabama State Treasurer’s CollegeCounts Scholarship page. It contains the current eligibility rules, award details, application dates, FAQ, and application link. For questions about scholarship awards or payments, the listed assistance contacts are 1-800-309-1198 and [email protected].