SMART Grant
To be eligible for a SMART Grant, a student must:
- Be a Federal Pell Grant recipient during the same award year;
- Have demonstrated financial need;
- Be enrolled in a four-year degree-granting institution;
- Be enrolled at least half-time status;
- Meet satisfactory academic progress standards;
- Be pursuing an eligible college major in physical, life, or computer science, engineering, mathematics, technology, or a critical-need foreign language. A complete list of eligible majors can be found here;
- Be enrolled in courses that lead to the completion of the eligible program;
- Have not previously received a bachelor’s or professional degree.
| Hours Earned (not including remedial coursework) |
Academic Year |
Enrolled full-time |
Enrolled three-quarter-time |
Enrolled half-time |
| 60-89 Hours | Third Year | $4,000 | $3,000 | $2,000 |
| 90-119 Hours | Fourth Year | $4,000 | $3,000 | $2,000 |
| The amount of money awarded is prorated based on the number of hours enrolled as of the official statistics day (See the Academic Calendar for dates.). | ||||
Additional Requirements:
- To continue to receive the SMART grant, students must meet all eligibility requirements listed above and must have earned a minimum cumulative external 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale at the end of the last semester before each disbursement. A student can only receive a third year award and a fourth year award once, regardless of if the student is still in the hour range for a specific academic year and meets all other program requirements.
- SMART is a need-based award, so the SMART award counts towards fulfilling a student’s overall need. A student cannot be overawarded when he or she receives a SMART Grant. Adjustments of award amounts may be necessary if the amount of the SMART Grant, when combined with a student’s other awards and expected family contribution, exceed the student’s cost of attendance.
- College level credit earned while in high school due to exam, transfer credit, dual enrollment credit, International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) are used when determining academic year progression.
- Hours for remedial coursework count towards determining a student’s enrollment status as of the Statistics Day, but remedial coursework does NOT count in a student’s earned hours for progression purposes. Remedial hours and grades do count in the GPA.
- Students must meet all other Title IV eligibility requirements.
- If the number of eligible students is large enough that payment of the full grant amounts would exceed the program appropriation in any fiscal year, then the amount of the grant to each eligible student may be ratably reduced.