The Grow PA Scholarship Grant Program, which began in the 2025-26 academic year, will continue in the 2026-27 academic year. The application for new students and those who wish to renew is now open on the PHEAA website.
Through this program, Pennsylvania resident students enrolled in Penn College's majors who have not yet completed the requirements for a bachelor-degree program are potentially eligible for grants of up to $5,000 per year for a maximum of four academic years!
Penn College is the only four-year institution in Pennsylvania where all discipline-specific associate- and bachelor-degree programs are pre-qualified.
Grant recipients must commit to work in Pennsylvania after graduation, within the in-demand occupation, for the number of years equal to the number of academic years for which they received the grant.
It is important to understand that grant recipients who do not satisfy the work and graduation requirements will be required to repay the entire Grow PA Grant.
To be eligible for a first-time award, recipients must:
To be eligible for a renewal award, recipients must:
Funding is limited, so don't delay! If you meet all eligibility criteria and will be enrolled in a discipline-specific associate- or bachelor-degree program at Penn College during the Fall 2026 and/or Spring 2027 semesters, start your application as soon as possible from PHEAA's Grow PA Grant site. Once you complete the application, submit it via PHEAA's Account Access site. You will need to create an account on the site if you don't already have one.
The application includes a Master Promissory Note (MPN) specific to the Grow PA Grant Program. You must agree to repay all Grow PA Grant funds received plus any interest if the work or graduation requirements are not met.
PHEAA recommends students who meet all eligibility criteria to submit their 2026-27 FAFSA before they apply for the Grow PA Grant.
Toward the end of August 2025, PHEAA provided Penn College with a list of potential awardees, and instructed us to review it to ensure awardees meet all eligibility criteria, and then return the list to PHEAA.
In late October 2025, the Financial Aid Team added Fall '25 Grow PA Grant awards to eligible students' accounts/bills and emailed awardees with additional important information about final disbursement. In December 2025, PHEAA notified us of additional potential awardees to review, and many more students were awarded for both Fall '25 and Spring '26 in January and February 2026.
Spring '26 disbursements began in the first half of March. Once the College receives disbursement authorization from PHEAA for all remaining eligible students, other awards will be disbursed.
PHEAA provides the following reasons why a Grow PA Grant will need repaid:
PHEAA provides a list of in-demand occupations by CIP code for Penn College students.