Merit Scholarship Deadlines: Honors College and Scholarship Dates for 2026-27 (Fall 2027 Entry)

The admission deadline is on every calendar. The merit scholarship deadline often is not.

At some colleges, the date that determines scholarship consideration comes before the final admission deadline. Honors colleges may run separate applications with their own essays, recommendation letters, and deadlines. Competitive scholarships can add interviews, special applications, or finalist weekends. And a file that arrives after a priority date may be considered only for whatever funding remains.

None of this is hidden, exactly. It is just spread across the admissions page, scholarship page, honors college page, and sometimes an alumni association or foundation site. Families who check only the admissions deadline can miss some of the dates that matter most.

This guide explains the different kinds of merit and honors deadlines to look for, shows real 2026-27 examples from seven universities, and gives you a system for finding every scholarship-related date on your own list.

The Short Answer

Merit scholarship deadlines can come earlier than the final admission deadline.

At the University of South Carolina, students must apply by November 15 to be considered for the Honors College and Top Scholar Program, and required application materials are due December 1.

"Priority deadline" often means the date for the broadest scholarship consideration. The University of Alabama asks summer and fall 2027 applicants to submit their application and supporting documents by December 4 to ensure consideration for admission and available scholarship opportunities.

Honors colleges can have their own timelines. ASU's Barrett, The Honors College uses a separate application, and students are advised to apply to ASU at least four weeks before their preferred Barrett deadline.

Competitive scholarships may add another layer. Baylor's most selective scholarship opportunities can require early applications, separate forms, and participation in specific scholarship events even though general merit consideration continues later in the cycle.

Missing a priority date does not always eliminate merit consideration, but it can reduce the opportunities still available.

Always confirm dates on each college's own website. They can change every cycle.

The Four Kinds of Merit and Honors Deadlines

Most scholarship and honors deadlines fall into four categories. A single college can have several of them.

1. Priority deadlines for automatic merit. Some colleges award merit automatically from the admission application, but full consideration depends on applying by a particular date. Baylor, for example, requires no additional application for its general incoming freshman merit scholarships, but files completed after February 1 are considered based on available funding.

2. Competitive scholarship applications. These are separate applications, sometimes with essays, résumés, videos, or interviews, for larger or named awards. The University of Alabama, for example, offers additional competitive scholarships through the Alabama Scholarship Award Manager, or ASAM, with a December 4 deadline for incoming summer and fall 2027 freshmen.

3. Honors college applications. At many universities, honors admission is a separate process with additional essays, recommendations, or other requirements. South Carolina's Honors College application requires two additional essays and one recommendation letter.

4. Scholarship events and interviews. Top awards may require a finalist weekend, interview, or scholarship event on a fixed date. South Carolina's Top Scholar semifinalists participate in a mandatory virtual interview in late January, and finalists are invited to Top Scholar Weekend from February 27 to March 1, 2027. Baylor's Invitation to Excellence events are January 22-23 and February 5-6, 2027.

Financial aid forms such as the FAFSA and CSS Profile run on a separate track. They can affect other parts of a student's aid package, so keep those deadlines in the same master calendar, but do not assume they are the same as merit or honors deadlines. For a full explanation of which forms your student needs and when to file them, see our guide to CSS Profile vs. FAFSA.

2026-27 Merit and Honors Deadlines at Seven Universities

These are examples from each university's own website for students starting college in fall 2027. They show how varied merit and honors timelines can be.

They are not a complete list of every scholarship at these universities, and colleges can update dates, so use each school's current scholarship and honors pages when building your own deadline calendar.

University of Texas at Austin

For fall 2027 entry, UT Austin's Early Action application deadline is October 15, 2026, and its regular application deadline is December 1, 2026.

Early Action provides an earlier admissions decision but is not required for Forty Acres Scholars Program consideration.

Students who apply to UT Austin through the Common App or ApplyTexas are automatically considered for the Forty Acres Scholars Program. A separate Forty Acres application is no longer required.

Students who want to affirmatively indicate interest in Forty Acres can complete the Scholarship Interest Form in MyStatus. The form becomes available after the university application is submitted and includes an expanded résumé and additional essay for students indicating Forty Acres interest. Those materials are due January 15.

The Forty Acres Scholars Program is open to high school seniors applying to UT Austin from inside or outside Texas who are U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents at the time of application.

The important lesson is that the scholarship timeline does not simply mirror the admission timeline. A student can submit the UT application by the December 1 deadline and still face a separate January 15 scholarship-related date.

Watch for outdated advice here. UT Austin's current admission dates for fall 2027 are October 15 for Early Action and December 1 for the final application deadline.

University of South Carolina

The Honors College and Top Scholar application deadline is November 15, and all required materials must be received by the December 1 credentials deadline.

The Honors College application requires two additional essays and one letter of recommendation. A résumé is optional.

The recommendation deserves early attention. A counselor can submit it through Common App, Scoir, or Naviance, or another recommender can submit it directly according to USC's instructions. USC says the recommender can be a teacher, counselor, coach, community leader, employer, or another person who knows the student well.

Ask the recommender early and check whether your high school has its own internal deadline for recommendation requests.

Top Scholar semifinalists are invited to a mandatory virtual interview in late January. Finalists are invited to the in-person Top Scholar Weekend from February 27 to March 1, 2027.

Honors College departmental scholarships for incoming students are separate again. The scholarship application for the fall 2027 incoming class will open in spring 2027 for eligible students.

Arizona State University: Barrett, The Honors College

Barrett tells prospective first-year students to apply to ASU at least four weeks before their preferred Barrett deadline.

For fall 2027, Barrett's Early Action deadline is November 1, 2026. Students aiming for that round should therefore apply to ASU by approximately October 1.

Barrett's Regular Decision deadline is January 15, 2027, with decisions released by March 5.

Scholarships are a separate step. Barrett's 2027-28 scholarship applications opened November 1, 2026 and close February 1, 2027.

Incoming students must submit the applicable scholarship applications by February 1 and be admitted to Barrett by March 5, 2027. Scholarship recipients are scheduled to be notified April 1, 2027.

Students should submit Barrett scholarship applications by February 1 even if their Barrett admission decision is still pending.

This is a good example of why families need separate columns for university admission, honors admission, and scholarship deadlines.

University of Alabama

Alabama's summer and fall 2027 priority deadline is December 4, 2026.

Students should submit the admission application and all supporting materials by that date to ensure consideration for admission and scholarship opportunities.

Automatic merit scholarships are built into the admission process and do not require an additional application, but qualifying official test scores must be submitted by the applicable deadline.

Additional competitive scholarships may be available through the Alabama Scholarship Award Manager, or ASAM. Incoming summer and fall 2027 freshmen must complete applicable ASAM scholarship applications by December 4.

Students who miss the December 4 priority deadline may still be considered for certain scholarships on a funds-available basis. Alabama states, however, that students who miss the competitive scholarship deadline will not receive consideration for those competitive awards unless an appeal based on extenuating circumstances is approved.

The Honors College application comes after admission to UA.

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M's university-level Honors Academy Minor has a December 15, 2026 deadline for incoming freshmen in the 2026-27 admission cycle.

Incoming freshman applicants first indicate their interest through Admissions and then receive instructions for completing the Honors Academy application.

Texas A&M also has honors programs within individual colleges, and those deadlines can be different.

The Craig and Galen Brown Engineering Honors Program, for example, opened its fall 2027 freshman application on August 1, 2026 and closes it January 15, 2027. Engineering Honors decisions are scheduled for release by March 31, 2027.

That means a student applying to Texas A&M should not stop after finding one "honors deadline." Check the university-level program and the honors options within the student's intended college or major.

University of Oklahoma

OU's Early Action admission deadline is November 1, 2026 for fall 2027 entry.

Students who apply by November 1 receive priority consideration for OU merit-based scholarships and earlier access to the Honors College application.

The final scholarship admission deadline is December 15. Incoming freshmen must apply by that date to receive scholarship consideration, and OU's admission application also serves as the application for centralized freshman scholarships.

The Honors College is a separate step. Students must first be admitted to OU and then submit the Honors College application.

For incoming freshmen, the Honors College priority deadline is April 1.

Two specialized Honors programs have earlier deadlines: the Medical Humanities Scholars Program and Pre-Law Scholars Program applications are due January 15.

Again, one university can produce several different deadlines depending on whether the student is targeting general merit, Honors College admission, or a specialized honors program.

Baylor University

Baylor automatically considers admitted applicants for general incoming freshman merit scholarships. No additional application is required for those awards.

For the broadest merit consideration, students should complete their Baylor admission file by February 1. Applicants whose files are completed after February 1 are considered for merit scholarships based on available funding.

Some of Baylor's most competitive scholarship opportunities work on a much earlier calendar.

For selected 2027 scholarship programs, including the Getterman Scholars Program and Invitation to Excellence, students must submit a completed Baylor admission application by November 1, 2026.

For Getterman consideration, the applicable Honors College Elite Academic Opportunities Application and Scholarship Events application are due November 12, 2026.

Invitation to Excellence is invite-only. For the 2027 cycle, event sessions are scheduled for January 22-23 and February 5-6.

The Honors College application for fall 2027 is open separately through Baylor's Elite Academic Programs process.

This is exactly why a single "Baylor deadline" is not enough. A student interested only in general merit has one timeline; a student targeting highly competitive programs such as Getterman has a much earlier one.

What "Priority" and "Complete" Actually Mean

Two words cause many missed merit deadlines.

Priority often means "the date for the broadest or full consideration." It rarely means "this date does not matter." At Alabama, for example, December 4 is the priority deadline for incoming summer and fall 2027 students seeking admission and scholarship consideration. Later scholarship consideration can depend on available funds.

Complete often means more than "I clicked Submit." Depending on the college or scholarship, a complete file can require:

• Test scores: received by the required deadline when a scholarship or admission process requires them.
• Transcripts: submitted according to the college's instructions.
• Recommendation letters: South Carolina's Honors application requires one recommendation by its credentials deadline.
• Admission to the university itself: students must first be admitted to OU before its Honors College application can be processed, and Barrett applicants must also complete the ASU admission process.
• Supplemental essays, résumés, videos, or forms: such as UT Austin's Scholarship Interest Form materials or Baylor's competitive scholarship applications.

The practical rule: do not treat the visible "application deadline" as the only date that matters.

Read what the college means by submitted, complete, priority, and received, and work backward from the earliest requirement.

How to Find Every Merit Deadline on Your List

Step 1: Check four pages for every school. Look at the admissions deadline page, scholarship page, honors college admissions page, and any alumni association, foundation, or major scholarship page. At UT Austin, for example, the Forty Acres Scholars Program is administered by the Texas Exes alumni association rather than the university admissions office.

Step 2: Find the words that signal a merit date. Search each page for "priority," "scholarship consideration," "complete file," "competitive," "honors," "scholarship application," "semifinalist," "finalist," and "interest form."

Step 3: Record each deadline in its own column. Use one row per college and separate columns for early decision, early action, priority admission, automatic merit, competitive scholarship, honors, and regular decision.

Do not put everything into one generic "deadline" column. That is exactly how scholarship and honors dates get lost.

Step 4: Subtract lead time. For any deadline that requires a counselor letter, transcript, teacher recommendation, or official test score, find out how much processing time your school or testing agency needs. Do not use the college deadline as the date you ask someone else to start their part.

Step 5: Watch the application-before-the-application dates. Barrett's four-week recommendation is a good example: a student targeting the November 1 Barrett deadline should apply to ASU around October 1 so the university admission process does not hold up the honors application.

Step 6: Calendar scholarship events. Interview weekends and scholarship programs, like South Carolina's Top Scholar Weekend and Baylor's Invitation to Excellence, can land during the spring semester and may require travel.

Step 7: Add National Merit separately if it applies. If your student took the PSAT/NMSQT as a junior and may qualify for National Merit recognition, add National Merit requirements and any college-specific National Merit scholarship deadlines to the same tracker. Those dates can be completely separate from the general admission and scholarship deadlines.

And keep FAFSA and CSS Profile deadlines in the same master calendar without confusing them with merit deadlines. For that process, use our separate guide to CSS Profile vs. FAFSA.

What If You Already Missed a Deadline?

It is not always all or nothing.

Ask whether later applicants are still considered. Alabama and Baylor both state that some students who miss their priority dates may still receive scholarship consideration based on available funding.

Look for a later honors opportunity. A missed early scholarship deadline does not necessarily mean every honors option is gone. OU's general Honors College priority deadline, for example, is April 1 even though its specialized Medical Humanities and Pre-Law programs close January 15.

Ask whether appeals exist. Alabama allows students to appeal for additional scholarship consideration in cases involving extenuating circumstances.

Check other scholarship categories. A missed competitive freshman award does not necessarily eliminate automatic merit, departmental awards, outside scholarships, National Merit opportunities, or scholarships available after enrollment. The rules are different at every school.

Then fix the process for the rest of the list, because the same pattern almost certainly repeats elsewhere.

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