helping Alabama high school students attend an Alabama college.
Overview
College can be the best time of your life. But paying for college isn’t easy. The CollegeCounts Scholarship can provide funding assistance to Alabama high school students who demonstrate a financial need and are planning to attend an Alabama college.
Eligibility to Apply
Applicants must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible for this scholarship:
- Be a high school senior or first-time college freshman beginning in fall 2026
- Be a U.S. citizen
- Be an Alabama resident
- Plan to enroll in an eligible Alabama educational institution in fall 2026
- Demonstrate financial need
- Have a minimum GPA of 2.75
- Have an ACT score of 29 or below (applicants attending a two-year school will not be required to submit ACT scores)
Award Details
- Awards exist of $4,000 for four-year college enrollees and $2,000 for two-year college enrollees.
- Award is one-time, non-renewable, and granted on a semester basis in the first academic year.
Application Period
Opens: December 1, 2026 – 12:01 am/CST
Closes: February 28, 2027 – 11:59 pm/CST
Program Key: CollegeCounts
For assistance with scholarship awards or payments, please call 1-800-309-1198, or send an email to collegecounts@applyists.com.
Frequently Asked Scholarship Questions
- Annual award amounts exist of $4,000 for four-year college enrollees and $2,000 for two-year college enrollees.
- Scholarships are determined through an application process.
- Colleges must be accredited, nonprofit two- or four-year colleges/universities in the state of Alabama.
- The award is non-renewable and will be granted for the fall and spring semesters of the recipient’s freshman year.
- These scholarships must be applied to tuition, fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for course load, including computers. Funds can also be applied to on-campus room and board expenses or off-campus housing if enrolled at least half-time and billed through the school. Other qualifications for covered room and board expenses must follow the “Qualified Education Expenses” guidelines found on the IRS 529 website: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch08.html.
Application dates are December 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027.
While going through the application process, you will create your own account that will allow you to monitor the status of your application through completion.
- You must be enrolled as an undergraduate in the fall of the year in which your scholarship is awarded.
- You must continue in school the entire academic year without interruption to receive the full award, unless otherwise approved by the scholarship sponsor.
- All students receiving a scholarship from the program must utilize their scholarship during the first and second semester of the same academic year in which their scholarship was awarded.
Notifications will be sent to award recipients, as well as applicants not selected to receive an award, via email by the end of April. For award recipients, an Acceptance link will be displayed on the home page following the notification.
- Notifications will be sent by email.
- Add CollegeCounts@applyists.com to your email address book or “safe senders list” to ensure these important emails are not sent to your junk mail folder.
- Payment of awards will be mailed to your accepted institution for credit to your account.
- Payments will be made payable to the institution only and issued in the fall and spring of your freshman year.
The CollegeCounts Board of Directors has established a selection process based upon the following objectively measurable criteria, in priority order: financial need, ACT score (for four-year school applicants), high school GPA, work/activities, service and honors/awards.
No, you are not.
You sure can.
The CollegeCounts Board of Directors is the sponsor of the CollegeCounts Scholarship Program, and the Alabama State Treasurer is delegated the administrative responsibilities of the program. CollegeCounts is the marketing name for the Alabama College Education Savings Program created by Alabama law (Code of Alabama, as amended, §16-33C-10, et al.). All promotional and marketing materials for the CollegeCounts Scholarship Program will utilize the name CollegeCounts in describing the savings program, the scholarship program, and the board.
There are two primary funding sources for Alabama’s CollegeCounts 529 Scholarship Program:
- Administrative Fees: “CollegeCounts 529 Fund” is the marketing name for what is actually known as the ACES Trust Fund under Alabama law. The ACES Trust Fund is part of the ACES Program, which was established as a college savings alternative that allows contributors to open savings accounts to pay for a beneficiary’s qualified educational expenses at an eligible institution of higher education. These savings accounts can be sold directly to individuals or sold to individuals by financial advisors. The ACES Trust Fund receives a 0.10% administrative fee each year from the assets held in the advisor-sold program.
- AHELC Surplus Funds: The Alabama Higher Education Loan Corporation (AHELC) was established to provide student loans to Alabamians. After a long period of inactivity, AHELC was revived, only to see its business model abolished by the U.S. Congress. As a result, the AHELC Board of Directors chose to cease operations, dissolve the nonprofit corporation, and grant the existing surplus to help fund Alabama’s CollegeCounts Scholarship Program. This decision was made in accordance with AHELC’s founding purpose of funding higher education student aid.