High School Scholarship Programs (HSSP)

Announcement of State Scholar Finalists
HSSP Electronic Process

Announcement of State Scholar Finalists

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) announced the 2011-12 State Scholars on November 21, 2011. A congratulatory letter was sent directly to each high school senior who is designated as a State Scholar for the 2012-13 academic year. An online listing of 2012-13 State Scholars, displays each State Scholar alphabetically by high school, within the school's Illinois county.

A Certificate of Achievement was mailed to the high school for their State Scholars to be distributed according to each school's preference. Schools will need to determine non-finalists based on the sixth-semester roster data they submitted to ISAC.

Additional details regarding the Illinois State Scholar finalists with links to the online listing of 2012-13 State Scholar finalists, a copy of the congratulatory letter, the formula used in the selection process, a sample press release to use in announcing this year’s State Scholars and appeal guidelines are available within the State Scholar Program section of the Gift Assistance area. 

If a high school counselor feels that a student should have been designated as a State Scholar and was not, a letter of appeal from the student must be submitted to ISAC on or before Friday, January 27, 2012. Details regarding the appeals process are provided at the Appeals page, located within the State Scholar section.

HSSP Electronic Process

The HSSP electronic process will work outside of the electronic exchange of transcripts that was used in past years (now called the College Illinois Transcript Exchange). As ISAC makes the transition to a new provider, a separate interim electronic process will be used. Effective immediately, high schools will be able to provide sixth semester data to ISAC electronically via an Excel spreadsheet.

Refer to the June 27, 2011 e-Message or the Required Sixth-Semester Data page for information about preparing and electronically submitting sixth semester data to ISAC via an Excel file. Links to the HSSP file specifications and sample template that can be downloaded and used by schools to create their Excel file are also available on the Required Sixth-Semester Data page.