Frequently Asked Questions

Our scholarships are available to any individual who will be attending a postsecondary institution in the upcoming school year. This includes two-year and four-year colleges, or trade and vocational schools. 

The Arizona Community Foundation manages more than 120 scholarship funds. Each scholarship has individual eligibility criteria. Your eligibility for awards will be determined based on your answers to the questions on the General Application. For this reason, students should read and answer each question carefully and completely. Visit our online scholarship application portal to read about the available scholarship opportunities and their criteria.

Begin the process. Students will need to sign up for an account with an active email address.

Yes. While many of our awards are designated for Arizona residents, several are open to eligible international students. See 'Am I eligible for your scholarship?' for more information.

We currently do not award for students who are concurrently enrolled in high school and college courses.

Yes. While many of our awards are designated for Arizona residents, several are open to students from any state who are attending any school across the country. See 'Am I eligible for your scholarship?' for more information.

No. Our scholarships can only be applied to expenses billed for future school years.

No. While we encourage parental participation in the process, the application questions need to be answered by the student.

Our scholarship applicants' personal information and scholarship records are confidential. Students will need to call ACF directly to receive any information on their application or scholarship award.

Current high school students should begin applying at the start of the spring semester of their senior year. The General Application opens online every January, and students are encouraged to begin their application early, as the deadlines range from February to May.

Yes, some scholarships are renewable. If a student is offered a renewable scholarship they will be contacted in the spring regarding the renewal process.

Deadlines vary by scholarship, with most between February and May. Specific award deadlines can be found on our online scholarship application.

If you can't locate the save or submit button, it's likely that you are using Internet Explorer as your browser. Internet Explorer is incompatible with our online system. Try using Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser to complete the reference.

We offer two types of scholarships: Auto-Match and Apply-To. Your complete and submitted General Application enters you into the applicant pool for any auto-match scholarships for which you may be eligible. The software will use the scholarship criteria to search for eligible students. It is important that you answer all questions so that the software can successfully match you. 

If you believe you are qualified for an Auto-Match opportunity that has not appeared on your Applications Dashboard, please contact us to troubleshoot. 

To be considered for Apply-To scholarships, view Opportunities, read the posted criteria carefully, and click the green Apply button only if you meet the criteria. Supplemental questions will be available for you to answer. 

Some of the Apply-To scholarships may appear as "recommended opportunities." Although they are recommended opportunities, it does not mean you are qualified to apply. Only apply for scholarships if you meet the eligibility requirements. Unqualified applications will not be considered.

Federal Resources

• Federal Student Aid: fafsa.ed.gov or studentaid.ed.gov

State Resources

• Arizona Commission for Post Secondary Education: highered.az.gov
• AZ Student Aid: azgrants.az.gov
• College Depot, Phoenix Public Library college access center: phoenixpubliclibrary.org/collegedepot
• College Goal Arizona – (FAFSA resources): collegegoal.az.gov/college-goal-fafsa 

Other Resources

• Your chosen College/University's website
• Aid/Scholarship Page - College Board: bigfuture.collegeboard.org

No. An unofficial transcript or Internet printout of your transcript is acceptable. To be considered, the transcripts must clearly state the student’s name, current academic year, GPA, grades for courses completed, and name of the educational institution. High school transcripts must include the grades from the first semester of senior year along with a GPA based on a 4.0 unweighted scale.

If you are unable to find a specific award, it may be because the deadline for that award has already passed. When a deadline passes, the opportunity is removed from view on the application.

Reviewers all have a different point of view. In general, we ask them to use the eligibility criteria and award preferences to score the applications. Typically, reviewers look for the following: 

• Well written, thorough, thoughtful, and concise essay responses that show your personality
• Proper grammar and spelling
• If required, references from credible sources that clearly state why an applicant should receive a scholarship
• An accurate description of financial need (if applicable)
• Truthful and honest answers to all questions

To be considered complete, all required questions must be answered. These questions are identified with an asterisk (*) in the application. 

A FAFSA Student Aid Report (SAR) is required for many, but not all, of our scholarships. We encourage students to submit the report if they can. Many scholarship awards are based on financial need.

The online system will generate an email based on the submitted email address. It is possible that the address was not entered correctly into the system. Another possibility is that the email was diverted into a spam or junk mailbox.

You can log in and see the status of your application(s) by clicking on the “My Applications” tab of the application.

You will be notified by email anytime between April and June depending on the deadline of the scholarship for which you are selected. Usually award notifications will be sent between two to three weeks after the posted deadline. Please check the email that you used to create your login.

You will not be contacted if you are not selected to receive an award, but your account will be updated under "My Applications."

Supporting documents for applications such as transcripts or Student Aid Reports (SAR) should be uploaded directly onto the application. If you have challenges with uploading, please contact us so that we can help you.

You can select "Add a new reference" under the reference question, but you cannot remove any references. If you send a request to more than two references, check your application to ensure the reference(s) you want to use are selected in the drop down menu of the reference section. If you make a change, be sure to save your application.

Most ACF scholarships can be used for tuition, fees, books, and on-campus room and board.

No. Most ACF scholarships cannot be used for off-campus housing. However, if you have fully paid your fees at the school, and you have a surplus of scholarship awards from ACF, we will allow that award to be distributed to you as a cash refund from the school to pay for living expenses.

The scholarship payment will be sent to the school and applied to your account. It is important that you notify us of the school's name and address, and your student ID number through your post-acceptance form to ensure the payment is sent to the correct address and applied to your account in a timely fashion. If your school information changes after you submit your post acceptance, you must notify us as soon as possible as this could cause a serious delay in the arrival of your scholarship.

In order to maintain confidentiality and credibility, we ask that all references be completed online. You will receive an email from our online system with a link to complete the short reference questionnaire. If you are a first-time user, you will be asked to sign up for an account and create a password. If you already have an account because you’ve served as a reference before, click the link and sign in using your previously set password. Click “Trouble Signing In” if you can’t recall your password.

We are looking for qualities that indicate a student is a worthy investment of scholarship funding. This may include being academically motivated, having work and/or community service experience, demonstrating leadership and individuality, being goal-oriented, and demonstrating the ability to overcome challenges.

If you can't locate the save or submit button, it's likely that you are using Internet Explorer as your browser. Internet Explorer is incompatible with our online system. Try using Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser to complete the reference.

Each award is different, but in some cases we will review all submitted applications. If there are sufficient funds, we may award students who do not have a low EFC. We understand that the FAFSA does not take into consideration all of a family's circumstances; therefore, all interested students should apply.

We understand that not all students are able to complete a FAFSA. You may still be eligible for our financial need-based awards. On the General Application, you should still answer "yes" to the question "Are you seeking need-based aid?" After submitting your General Application, the Financial Need Information application will appear. Here you can indicate "I am INELIGIBLE to complete the FAFSA, but I am seeking scholarships based on financial need."