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The 2025-26 State Programs and Procedures Manual was recently updated (10/08/2025) to include the following policy update:
15-Month Initiation Requirement
Students must initiate their Michigan Achievement Scholarship within 15-months of high school graduation or earning a high school equivalency certificate. Initiation is defined as enrolling at any enrollment level at a participating Michigan institution within 15-months of high school graduation or earning a high school equivalency certificate.
Initiation in MiSSG begins when the first of one of the following conditions is met:
- A Michigan Achievement Scholarship or Michigan Achievement Skills Scholarship payment of $0.01 or greater, or
- The certification of a Michigan Achievement Scholarship award as “NO - Full-Time - exceeds COA/T&F,” or
- Certification of Michigan Achievement Scholarship award as “NO” with any enrollment level other than “Not Enrolled,” or
- Manually entering a student’s first term of enrollment using the override process in MiSSG.
Note: Dual enrollment or Early Middle College Enrollment semesters are not counted towards Michigan Achievement Scholarship initiation.
We are currently testing automatic system updates to ensure they are functioning correctly. These updates will review Michigan Achievement Scholarship students who previously had awards certified for less than full-time and determine if they now meet the 15-month initiation requirement. We anticipate these automatic updates will be available in MiSSG soon, as this is our top priority.
The next phase will enable institutions to perform a manual update to a student’s Michigan Achievement Scholarship record. This manual update allows an override of the 15-month requirement. When performing a manual update, institutions will need to provide the following information:
- Name of the institution where the student first enrolled during the 15-month period
- Academic year of first enrollment during the 15-month period
- Semester/term of first enrollment during the 15-month period
We will communicate promptly with institutions once the manual update becomes available in the system.
Fall certification for the Michigan Achievement Scholarship will open on Wednesday, October 22, 2025. Please be aware that once the 15-month automatic updates are applied in MiSSG, the number of students eligible for certification will increase significantly. These updates may not occur immediately after certification opens, so institutions should plan to monitor their certification rosters regularly.
First quarter payments are scheduled to be issued Wednesday, November 12, 2025.
For a complete list of payment details for each program, please refer to the Payment Schedule. Any updates to this schedule will be communicated promptly.
The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential is not affiliated with National Merit Scholarship Corporation or its registered trademarks National Achievement®, Achievement Scholarship®, or Achievement Scholar®.
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