· A total of 324 recent high school students received Last-Dollar Scholarships amounting to more than $550,000 to attend DMACC during the fall 202 semester.
· More than 900 adults, age 20 and older, received scholarships totaling nearly $1 million from the program.
· The deadline to complete the FAFSA for Last-Dollar Scholarship consideration during the fall 2021 semester is July 1, 2021.
ANKENY, Iowa—The Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship program continues to be very popular with DMACC students. A total of $1,546,924 was awarded to DMACC students in the most recently completed fall semester. The fall 2020 semester scholarships, funded by the state of Iowa, were broken down into two groups:
· Recent high school students—324 recent high school students received $558,441
· Adults—925 adults received $988,483
“This program, as the name implies, is intended to cover any remaining gap between federal and state grants/scholarships and tuition and qualified fees,” said Ean Freels, DMACC Financial Aid Director.
The fall 2020 semester marked the start of the second year of the Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship program, which is part of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ Future Ready Iowa initiative.
Freels said to be eligible for the program for the upcoming spring semester, students would have had to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA form by August 1, 2020. The deadline to complete the FAFSA for Last-Dollar Scholarship consideration during the fall 2021 semester is July 1, 2021.
Freels said to qualify for the Last Dollar Scholarships, students must be enrolled in one of the many in-demand DMACC programs that qualify for the program (view the full list here).
“Last Dollar Scholars is a program designed with community need in mind. The programs that are eligible are those that serve the “skills gap” and people genuinely want to get into these fields,” said Dr. Steve Pankey, DMACC Director of Enrollment Services & Registrar. “It’s powerful when policy and necessity collide.”
DMACC Dental Hygiene student Courtney McCrystal was a recent recipient of an Iowa Last Dollar Scholarship.
“The Last Dollar Scholarship was able to help me be able to afford to be in a program that I dreamed of being in ever since high school,” McCrystal said. “I’m so grateful for the Last Dollar Scholarship because it really helped me with stress. I’m stress-free with money because I was able to afford coming here. It was such a blessing.”
To learn more about the Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship, visit http://lastdollar.dmacc.edu. For assistance with any questions, please contact the DMACC Financial Aid Office at (515) 964-6282 or toll-free at (800) 362-2127 (choose menu option 3), or email finaid@dmacc.edu.
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