High School Seniors

Any high school senior can apply for a Foundation scholarship provided that they have been officially admitted into Gulf Coast State College and have a GCSC student ID number (i.e. A00123456). The applicant must also have access to myGCSC and GCSC email systems. Since the College has an open-door admission policy, the Foundation does not require a scholarship applicant to take the SAT and/or ACT test or submit the results as a requirement to apply for a Foundation scholarship.

Dual-enrolled

Even though dual-enrolled high school students have access to myGCSC and the GCSC email system, they must officially apply to the College and receive a letter of admission before applying for a Foundation scholarship. No scholarship application will be processed if this step is bypassed. Dual-enrolled students who are not graduating seniors (i.e. juniors, sophomores, freshman) are not eligible to apply or receive a Foundation scholarship.

Gulf Coast State College Honors Program

All High School Honors scholarship applicants are encouraged to complete and submit an application to the Gulf Coast State College Honors Program. The Honors Program emphasizes the development of your critical thinking skills in an environment that is unique and challenging. Honors courses are not designed to be more work, although they may be. Rather, these courses are designed to be a different approach to teaching and learning. This more experiential and engaged method of teaching and learning will maximize your learning potential. Our honors classes are full of bright, promising students and are led by exceptional faculty. For more information please click on this link.

Honors Scholarships

The Foundation welcomes all Gulf Coast State College students and high school seniors, to apply for the Foundation’s honors scholarships. All qualified high school honors applications must have a recommendation from the applicant’s guidance counselor or senior adviser. An electronic recommendation link is provided inside the High School Honors application. This is a mandatory requirement. The deadline to apply for the scholarship is March 15th.

Applicants must first complete the Foundation’s general scholarship application. Then select either:
the Gulf Coast State College Honors Program Scholarship (for current GCSC students) OR
the High School Honors Scholarship (for graduating high school seniors).
Applicants are encouraged to apply to the Gulf Coast State College Honors Program.
Applicants must have an unweighted grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 or higher.
Applicants will be required to submit two (2) letters of recommendation from non-family members.
Applicants will be required to answer one essay question.

Honors program recipients are selected by a committee comprised of faculty and staff of the Gulf Coast State College honors program. All applications are reviewed, scored, and ranked. Selections are made based on the ranking. The scoring committee will not pre-designate scholarship slots to high schools. Since the selection is based on rankings and applicant qualifications, the number of recipients chosen from any one high school may vary.

Guidance Counselor or Senior Advisor Recommendations

All qualified HSH applications must have a recommendation from the applicant’s guidance counselor or senior adviser. A recommendation email link is provided inside the HSH application. The applicant must know their counselor or adviser’s email address before submitting the recommendation. All counselor or adviser recommendations are confidential; the applicant will not be able to review the results. It is the responsibility of the applicant (not the counselor or adviser) to track and monitor the recommendation submittal. The Foundation recommends that applicants notify their adviser or counselor before submitting their electronic recommendation. The deadline for submitting recommendations is March 15th.

Recognition Ceremonies

The Foundation will make all reasonable attempts to recognize scholarship recipients who are graduating high school seniors. However, due to the March 15th application deadline, the selection and awarding of scholarships may occur after a high school’s senior recognition or graduation ceremonies. The Foundation reserves the right to recognize a high school senior as “a potential scholarship nominee” for recognition purposes; however, please note the nominee may or may not be officially selected by the scholarship committee. The Foundation will not be responsible for any announcements, recognition, or award claims generated by a high school (prior to the official awarding of scholarships) unless pre-approved by the Foundation.