Grants are free money. A grant is a need-based award that does not need to be repaid. Along with scholarships, grants are the best form of financial aid. The main difference is that scholarships typically look at academic merit as well as financial need, whereas grants are almost exclusively awarded because of financial need. There are federal, state, private and institutional grant programs.

Who gets grants? Your eligibility for grant programs depends on a number of factors - but primarily on your level of financial need (as determined by your FAFSA information). Most grants go to dependent, undergraduate students at UT Austin who demonstrate a high level of financial need. See our How is Aid Calculated? page for more information about how need is established. Each year UT Austin establishes Gift Aid Parameters (GAP) to allocate our grant funds most properly among eligible students. Our GAP take into account factors such as financial need, academic classification, housing situation, and FAFSA priority status.

The most important thing for students seeking grants to remember is to file their FAFSA by our priority deadline. Since grant funds are limited, we can only give the maximum consideration to those students who have met the priority deadlines.

Please visit our Grant Programs page for information about the major grant programs available at UT-Austin.