College Scholarships

MPS scholarships are available for MPS students who are pursuing postsecondary education at accredited two and four-year colleges. These scholarships provide one-time, non-renewable awards for first year tuition and expenses to these institutions. Recipients are selected by school-specific or MPS district-wide staff scholarship committees.

Scholarships are paid directly to postsecondary institutions by Achieve Twin Cities to cover the scholarship recipient’s tuition and attendance costs as determined by the individual institutions. These costs can include books, laptop computers, lab equipment, housing and other items as approved by the institution.

Scholarship Criteria & Process

• Scholarships can be awarded to graduates of specific MPS schools or can be available to all MPS students. We can arrange for an annual rotation in which school the scholarship(s) are awarded to each year, if preferred.
• Scholarship applicants must complete an application. 
• Scholarship applicants must be planning to attend an accredited two-year or four-year postsecondary program.
• Scholarship recipients are chosen by individual school scholarship committees or MPS district-wide committees.
• Scholarships are non-renewable. They are awarded for the student’s first year of college only.

Possible Additional Scholarship Criteria

In working with donors to create new scholarships, Achieve Twin Cities will sometimes allow additional scholarship criteria that recognize specific achievements, interests, and student identities. Achieve makes the ultimate determination about which criteria are feasible to include for a new award. Some examples may include:

• Financial need: Some applications can ask students to attest to financial need for postsecondary education. However, students cannot be required to submit or verify any financial information with their application.
• Grade Point Average: If donors wish to require a GPA minimum on the application, a 2.5 GPA is recommended.
• Student identity: Some applications may state that a scholarship is intended to recognize a particular student identity underrepresented in higher education. Applicants can self-identify by selecting demographic information on the application or choose not to answer the question. Selection committees will not make scholarship decisions based on student identity alone but may consider the applicant’s discussion of how it has affected their life in the essay section.
• Other specific interest areas: Some scholarship applications can ask students to identify areas or fields of interest based on their high school achievement or activities (but not based on what they may possibly do in the future).  

• Essay question: Some scholarship applications can include an essay question that is approved by Achieve Twin Cities or utilizes this universal prompt: What is an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and influenced your postsecondary goals? Application essay responses may not exceed 500 words.

A $5,000 minimum scholarship commitment is required to create a MPS scholarship

• For one-year commitments, a minimum of $5,000 is required (for 1-5 scholarships). A minimum of $1,000 per student.  
• For multi-year commitments, a minimum of $1,000 award per year for five years is required. 
• Total funds that must be sent to Achieve by December 31 each year include the amount of scholarships to be awarded plus Achieve’s administrative fee.

If a donor does not wish to commit $5,000 for a new scholarship, they can consider making donations to: 

• School-specific MPS general scholarship funds managed by Achieve Twin Cities
• Districtwide MPS general scholarship fund managed by Achieve Twin Cities

Achieve Twin Cities takes a fiscal management fee on total scholarship contributions in accordance with its agreement with Minneapolis Public Schools to help cover the administration costs. As of the current agreement (July 1, 2026-June 30, 2027), this fee is 10%. The fee is subject to change based on updated agreements with the district.

Achieve administers all scholarships through a process that applies objective criteria to evaluate applications for assistance and in a manner that includes safeguards to avoid allegations of discrimination or failure to make fair and objective determinations (for example, safeguarding against scholarships being distributed to relatives of MPS staff, Achieve Twin Cities employees or members of the selection committee).

November 30

All new scholarship inquiries must be received no later than November 30, with no exceptions. We highly encourage donors to start the process as early as possible to ensure that all scholarship details can be finalized and the scholarship is established in time to be awarded to graduates the following spring.

December 15

All scholarships must be established and finalized no later than December 15 to be included in scholarship awards for the upcoming spring. Please note: If it is unlikely or not feasible that a scholarship will be completed by December 15, it will not be awarded until the following year’s cycle (a year from the upcoming spring).  

December 31

All funds must be received or postmarked by December 31 to be awarded during the upcoming spring.

Late Winter, Early Spring

All MPS students and school scholarship committees receive information about scholarship availability, eligibility and any relevant applications. 

Early May

All scholarship awardees are selected by school-specific or MPS district-wide scholarship committees.

"September Deadline" (first Friday of each September)    

By the first Friday of September, all scholarship recipients must either 1) submit acceptance paperwork for their scholarships (including proof of enrollment) or 2) request a deferral for up to one year. 

Upon verification of each recipient’s paperwork, Achieve Twin Cities sends the scholarship award funds to their specific postsecondary institution. The award is then applied by the school against the balance owed for tuition (and other fees as approved by the school, as mentioned above). Upon sending scholarship award checks, Achieve is no longer part of that specific scholarship award process.

If a scholarship recipient is unable to begin studies in the fall due to unforeseen circumstances, they may request a deferral by the September Deadline (the first Friday of September). Deferrals are good for up to one year. 

If a recipient requests a deferral but does not enroll in the postsecondary institution within one year, or if they fail to provide all required paperwork on time once they are ready to accept the award (for the following spring or fall), the award is then forfeited. Forfeited awards are awarded to a different applicant in the next scholarship cycle.

If donors are interested in learning more about their scholarship recipients, Achieve Twin Cities can share the student’s first name and essay (if an essay was required) in the Fall after awards have been processed. Donor correspondence can be sent to students through Achieve Twin Cities, but recipients’ full names and contact information will not be shared with donors.