Nevada Promise Scholarship
Last-dollar tuition support for eligible Nevada graduates attending participating community colleges through CSN, plus required steps for mentoring, FAFSA, and service.
Nevada Promise Scholarship
Status of this opportunity
This page is a historical reference for the 2025-2026 Nevada Promise Scholarship application cycle at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN). The official CSN page gives that cycle’s application deadline as October 31, 2025, and lists the Class of 2026 as the graduating class served by the published checklist. That deadline has passed.
The CSN page I verified still displays the completed 2025-2026 cycle and its follow-on requirements. It does not publish a new application deadline for a later cycle on that page. Do not treat this entry as an open application or assume that the old deadline has rolled forward. Check the official CSN page before planning a future application; a new cycle may use different dates, forms, or requirements.
What the scholarship provides
Nevada Promise is a last-dollar scholarship created by the Nevada Legislature. At CSN, the official description says it can cover up to three years of tuition and other mandatory fees that are not covered by other gift aid, provided the student maintains eligibility. It is not a cash award with a fixed dollar amount and it is not a promise to pay every cost of attending college.
The order of payment matters. Gift aid such as a Pell Grant, the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, the Silver State Opportunity Grant, or the Governor Guinn Millennium Scholarship is applied first. Promise is considered after that aid. A student must still have an eligible balance for tuition or mandatory fees for Promise funds to be applied. Housing, books, transportation, and other non-mandatory costs should be budgeted separately unless another award covers them.
CSN also says funding is state-funded and depends on available funds. If funds are limited, students who received Promise in previous years receive priority, while new students are considered first-come, first-served based on the FAFSA or Non-Filer completion date. Maintaining eligibility therefore does not turn the award into an unrestricted three-year guarantee.
Eligibility for the published CSN cycle
The following requirements describe the cycle that CSN currently publishes, not a newly announced future round. For that cycle, an applicant had to:
- Be a Nevada resident under Title 4, chapter 15 of the Board of Regents Handbook.
- Have no previously earned associate or bachelor’s degree.
- Have graduated from a Nevada public or private high school, graduated from a qualifying border-county public high school that accepts Nevada residents, or completed an approved high school equivalency such as GED, HiSET, or TASC before age 20.
- If homeschooled, complete a qualifying high school equivalency exam by June 15, 2026.
- Enroll in at least 12 credits in an associate degree, bachelor’s degree, or eligible certificate of achievement program beginning in the fall after graduation.
- Complete every required step by its published deadline.
The 12-credit rule is tied to eligible coursework in the student’s degree or certificate program. CSN says waitlisted classes do not count toward the minimum and that financial aid can only be awarded for courses applicable to the declared degree. A student should therefore choose a program, meet with an academic advisor, and confirm that the planned classes satisfy the program rather than registering for an arbitrary set of credits.
The published application and completion sequence
CSN labels its process “10 Steps to be Eligible.” The steps below preserve the official sequence and explain what each one was for. Since the 2025-2026 application deadline is closed, they are useful for understanding the completed cycle and for building a checklist to compare against any future CSN announcement.
Submit the Nevada Promise Scholarship application. The published deadline was October 31, 2025. The official page says missing a required step means losing scholarship eligibility.
Apply for admission to CSN. The fall 2026 admission application opened October 1, 2025. Applicants had to apply as degree-seeking students. CSN noted that CTE, JumpStart, Dual Enrollment, and CSN High School students did not need to reapply.
Submit the Mentoring Support Authorization form. The deadline was March 1, 2026. The form was required for mentor pairing, and CSN gave priority to students who completed the March 1 requirements and reported eight hours of community service.
Complete the two required preparation activities. The CSN Online New Student Orientation and the Nevada Promise Training each had a March 1, 2026 deadline. Students were told to log in with their CSN credentials where required and save each completion certificate.
Submit financial aid information. Students had to submit the 2026-2027 FAFSA or, if they could not complete FAFSA, the Non-FAFSA Filer Declaration Form by April 1, 2026. The CSN page says the 2026-2027 FAFSA was available in October 2025 and specifically states that DACA students had to complete that FAFSA. Students selected for financial aid verification had an additional verification process to complete.
Complete placement testing or submit ACT/SAT scores when required. CSN required this for students with fewer than six CSN credits, and it had to be completed before meeting with an academic advisor. The page notes that advising appointments opened in mid-April.
Meet with an academic advisor and register for classes. CSN recommended finalizing the fall 2026 schedule by August 1, 2026. The student had to register for at least 12 credits required by the degree or certificate program. A waitlisted course did not satisfy the minimum.
Report community service. The deadline was May 1, 2026, and the requirement was eight hours. The eligible service date range was May 1, 2025 through May 1, 2026. Students had to submit the hours in the Nevada Promise Scholarship Student Portal and retain either the Nevada Promise volunteer timesheet or the service organization’s tracking record. CSN said the hours had to be reviewed and approved before they counted.
Complete financial aid verification if selected. The deadline was July 1, 2026. Students were told to check the MyCSN To Do List and CSN student email, including messages that might come from ProEd. This was separate from simply submitting the FAFSA.
Meet the assigned mentor. The deadline was July 1, 2026, and the student had to meet with the mentor at least once. CSN said mentor pairing began in March, assignments were distributed by email, and final assignments would go out by May 1, 2026. To be paired, students had to complete Steps 1 through 5, have the 2026-2027 FAFSA posted to the MyCSN account, and complete and report eight community service hours.
How to use this page if a new cycle is announced
Start at CSN’s Nevada Promise Scholarship page, not at an old saved form or a search result. Confirm the graduating class, application window, deadline, FAFSA year, service window, and portal instructions. The current official page says all dates are subject to change, so the 2025-2026 dates above must not be copied into a new application without checking CSN’s replacement checklist.
Once a new cycle is actually published, first verify residency and the accepted high school or equivalency route. Then apply for CSN admission as a degree-seeking student, choose an eligible program, and record every requirement in one checklist. A scholarship application alone is not enough. The CSN process connects the application to the student portal, orientation, Nevada Promise Training, financial aid, service reporting, advising, enrollment, verification, and mentoring.
For financial aid, submit the FAFSA required for the announced cycle unless CSN directs you to use the Non-FAFSA Filer Declaration Form. Watch the MyCSN To Do List and CSN student email for verification requests. For service, confirm that the activity is eligible before committing time, record each shift, and submit the required total through the portal with documentation. Keep the completion certificates for orientation and training, the service record, FAFSA confirmation, and mentor correspondence together.
Before registering, meet with an academic advisor and check that every planned course applies to the declared program. CSN’s published rule is at least 12 eligible credits, not merely 12 credits appearing on a schedule. Also remember that the award is last-dollar: even an eligible student may receive no Promise payment if other gift aid already covers the remaining mandatory fees.
Renewal and ongoing responsibilities
CSN describes renewal as a continuing eligibility process. A recipient must maintain continuous enrollment, remain in an eligible degree or certificate program, enroll in at least 12 eligible credits unless an approved appeal permits fewer, satisfy Satisfactory Academic Progress, and continue to meet program requirements. The student must also remain free of a previously earned associate or bachelor’s degree.
The CSN renewal information lists recurring community service and mentor meetings, FAFSA or Non-FAFSA deadlines, financial aid verification when selected, and academic advising as continuing responsibilities. A missed step can result in loss of eligibility. CSN provides appeal and leave-of-absence routes for circumstances such as a missed requirement, a need to take fewer than 12 credits, disability-related circumstances, graduation with fewer than 12 credits, or personal, medical, or religious reasons. Those options require the student’s statement and supporting documents; they are not a substitute for meeting ordinary deadlines.
Students who were part of the completed 2025-2026 cycle should use their MyCSN To Do List, CSN student email, and the Promise office for case-specific status. Students who did not apply by October 31, 2025 should wait for an official future cycle announcement rather than submitting an outdated application. This entry remains useful as an explanation of the program’s last-dollar design and the level of administrative follow-through CSN required in the published cycle, but it should not be read as confirmation that applications are currently open.
Official source
- College of Southern Nevada, CSN’s Nevada Promise Scholarship
- College of Southern Nevada, Scholarship Award Renewal
The CSN Promise page is the controlling source for a future application window, deadline, forms, and checklist. Recheck it before relying on any date or submitting materials.