Financial Aid & Scholarships

Financial Aid

FAFSA

The application for the 26-27 academic year will be available on October 1, 2025 for current seniors.

TASFA

TASFA applicants usually include students who are non-citizens or non-permanent residents of the United States and also classified as Texas residents.

Completing either the FAFSA/TASFA or an opt-out form is now a requirement for graduation.

tinyurl.com/CLFA2026

FAFSA_Completion_Guide_25-26.pdf

2025-2026CollegesOfferingFreeTuition.pdf

Over 30+ universities all around the state of Texas are offering a Promise program for FREE tuition based on your family's income. Each school has different criteria.

Students need to be a Texas resident, be admitted to the school, and submit the FAFSA for consideration! Click the link to each school to learn more about the details!

The different types of financial aid includes:

Grants-free money awarded based on family's income/need from the federal government (FAFSA) or the state government (TASFA).
Scholarships-free money awarded based on student's merit and/or need. Students have to pursue scholarship opportunities. Many scholarships require students to complete the FAFSA of TASFA.
Loans-funds that have to be repaid with interest. Requires completion of FAFSA or TASFA.
Work Study-funds earned by working on-campus. Requires completion of FAFSA or TASFA.

Some schools have limited institutional funds to award on a “first come, first serve” basis. Most schools in Texas have a priority deadline of January 15th.

Scholarships

There are several search engines that will identify different scholarships based on a student's unique qualifications. Many scholarships require students to fill out the FAFSA application.

CFISD General Scholarships

CFISD's College and Career Readiness provides a list of nationwide, statewide, citywide and more local scholarship opportunities for students. The list is in order by application deadline so make sure you are paying close attention to that when applying.

Collegeboard's BigFuture

Search engine students can use to enter in all personal information such as grade, age, ethnicity, gender, GPA/class rank to see what individualized scholarship opportunities they are qualified to apply to. You must create an account to take the career, college and scholarship quizzes.

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

College for All Texans is a hub on different types of financial aid opportunities available to Texas students. A list of Texas grants and qualifiers can be found on this site.

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