If you or someone you know is heading to college this fall, we want to remind you of an important deadline. July 1 is the last day to apply for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship.

Since 2009, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has raised more than $1.2 billion in proceeds for scholarships. Those proceeds have funded 720,000 college scholarships in Arkansas.

Students applying for the upcoming expecting to attend an approved college or university in the academic year following their graduation from a public high school, a private or out-of-state high school, or homeschool must have an ACT composite score or superscore of at least a 19 (or an equivalent of a 19 composite on an equivalent test).

The amount of the scholarship is as follows for 4-year institutions:
$1,000 freshman year
$4,000 sophomore year
$4,000 junior year
$5,000 senior year

Students attending 2-year institutions are eligible for $1,000 their freshman year and $3,000 their sophomore year.

During the recent legislative session, lawmakers created the Arkansas Challenge Plus Scholarship which provides additional funding for students with an Academic Challenge Scholarship based on their financial needs. ACT 386  requires that Arkansas Challenge Plus Scholarship Program scholarships be funded by available net proceeds remaining from the previous academic year after the transfer of the net lottery proceeds necessary to fund the existing scholarship programs.

The General Assembly also passed Act 413 which requires the Division of Higher Education to update existing rules to allow the lottery-funded scholarships to be used during a summer term.

For more information about lottery-funded scholarships and to apply for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship visit sams.adhe.edu.