Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships

Scholarship Sponsored by Arkansas Department of Higher Education

Overview
The Arkansas Academic Challenge Program awards scholarships to Arkansas residents who are pursuing postsecondary education. Supported largely by the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, the Academic Challenge is open to students at all points in their education—high school graduates planning to enter college, current college students, first-time college enrollees, and those returning to college after a break.

Eligibility requirements

Traditional applicants (recent high school graduates)
Students who plan to enroll at an approved college or university in the academic year immediately after finishing high school (public, private, out-of-state, or homeschool) must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- ACT composite or superscore of 19 or higher
- Accuplacer: average of 246 across the three sections
- Classic Learning Test (CLT) score of 58 or above
- High school GPA of 3.00 or higher
- Diploma of Merit

Enrollment and academic progress requirements for Traditional students:
- First Fall after high school graduation: enroll in at least 12 credit hours to receive scholarship funds that semester.
- Subsequent semesters: enroll in a minimum of 15 credit hours each semester to receive funds for that semester.
- First academic year requirement: earn at least 27 credit hours.
- Each academic year thereafter: earn at least 30 credit hours.
- Maintain a cumulative college GPA of at least 2.5.

Conversion for freshmen who did not originally apply or qualify
A student who completes their first academic year as a full-time, first-time college student and who did not apply for or receive the Academic Challenge during the prior year may be treated as a Traditional student if they finish that year with 27 credit hours and a cumulative 2.5 GPA. If they do not reach 27 hours by the end of the spring term, they remain eligible to apply as a Non-Traditional student.

Non-Traditional applicants
This category includes students who already have some college credit but never received the Academic Challenge, and adults who have attended college previously but have not earned a degree. Eligibility conditions:
- Students with prior college credit: must have a cumulative college GPA of at least 2.5.
- Students with no college credit: qualify if they have an ACT composite or superscore of 19 or the equivalent on another accepted test.

Enrollment and progress rules for Non-Traditional students:
- Non-Traditional recipients may begin receiving a prorated scholarship if they enroll in fewer credits than the Traditional minimums for a semester.
- They must maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 and earn the required number of hours each semester, with requirements adjusted according to whether they are full-time (15+ credit hours) or part-time (fewer than 15 credit hours).

Important testing note
The Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) will only accept the official ACT composite or superscore produced by ACT. ADHE cannot manually include or exclude the Science score from any ACT administration (Legacy or Enhanced). If you plan to rely on an ACT composite or superscore to meet eligibility, coordinate with ACT and/or your high school counselor before taking the test to determine the best approach—the test results cannot be retroactively modified to add or remove the Science score after the test has been taken.