91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ

On this page:

• Categories that Require MD Residency
• Categories that Don't Require Maryland Residency
• Application Process and Deadlines
• Scholarship Amount Limits

Maryland's Conroy and Cryor Scholarships support students who meet the military service, 9/11, public safety employee or school employee violence victim criteria below.  

The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) establishes the award criteria, and the 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ Financial Aid Office processes applications based on their guidelines.

Categories that Require MD Residency

• A student veteran who is a current MD resident who suffered a disability of 25% or greater as a result of U.S. military service and has exhausted or is no longer eligible for federal veterans’ educational benefits.
• A student veteran who was a Maryland resident when declared a U.S. POW/MIA of the Vietnam conflict or their children or stepchildren who were born before or while they were a POW/MIA.
• Children, stepchildren or the surviving spouse (who has not remarried) of a person from any of the three categories below. 

For the three categories below, the student applicant must be a current MD resident, or your family member must have been a MD resident when the qualifying event occurred.

• a U. S. Armed Forces service member who died or suffered a 100% permanent disability as a result of his/her service
• a Maryland public or private school employee who as a result of an act of violence died or was rendered 100% disabled in the line of duty
• a Maryland resident who was killed as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or the crash of United Airlines Flight 93

Categories that Don’t Require Maryland Residency

• a state or local public safety employee* or volunteer who was 100% disabled in the line of duty
• children, stepchildren or the surviving spouse (who has not remarried) of a state or local public safety employee or volunteer in Maryland who died or was 100% disabled in the line of duty

*Public safety employees include persons employed or serving as volunteers in Maryland fire departments, ambulance or rescue company or squads; law enforcement or correctional officers; and members of the Maryland National Guard who were Maryland residents at time of death or disability.

Other Requirements

• Recipients must enroll at least half-time to receive an award for that term (6 units for undergrads and most graduate students and 3 units for doctoral students).
• You must be pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree; or a graduate certificate program.
• All recipients must be at least 16 years old.
• Recipient awards may be renewed for up to 5 years of full-time enrollment or 8 years of part-time enrollment or a combination of both. 

Application Process and Deadlines

• Because state law requires new applicants to apply by July 15 of each year, the 2026-2027 application is closed. The 27-28 application will become available in Spring 2027.
• If you are a previous Conroy/Cryor recipient at 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ and received a Spring 2026 Conroy/Cryor payment at 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ, you do not need to reapply. If you didn't receive a spring payment at 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ, you should immediately reapply because funding is very limited.

Scholarship Amount Limits

In recent years, because of statewide increases in Conroy/Cryor recipients, the annual Conroy/Cryor payments drastically exceeded the annual state Conroy/Cryor budget. In prior years, the extra spending was paid from supplemental state funding. Because state law was recently revised to limit annual spending based on the state’s annual Conroy/Cryor budget allocation, MHEC has implemented new spending limits. Because these new spending limits are more than 50% lower than last year, Conroy Scholarship amounts decreased. 

New Recipient Amounts — After Spring 2026

For 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ students who receive their first Conroy/Cryor Scholarship award after Spring 2026, the maximum annual 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ Conroy/Cryor scholarship amount for new recipients will be $3,000 per year ($1,500 per semester).

These limits will apply to these new recipients for 26-27 and future award years, but future award amounts could change because MHEC scholarships are subject to state and MHEC budget restrictions.

Legacy Recipient Amounts — Before Fall 2026

Students who received their first Conroy/Cryor scholarship payments at 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ before Fall 2026 will receive the slightly higher award amounts below because their previous awards were higher. The 2026-27 limit below are based on MHEC’s budget allocation to 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ and our total projected 2026-27 Conroy/Cryor scholarship payments. During the fall semester, we will reevaluate our total projected Conroy/Cryor payments for fall 2026 and spring 2027. If those projected payments are significantly higher or lower than MHEC’s budget allocation to 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ, we will change the spring 2027 award amounts. Future award amounts could change because MHEC scholarships are subject to state and MHEC budget restrictions.

Enrollment level	Semester LIMIT	ANNUAL LIMIT
Full-time	$2,600	$5,200
3/4 time	$1,950	$3,900
1/2 time	$1,500	$3,000

Additional Limits

Conroy/Cryor Scholarship amounts also can’t exceed all these additional MHEC limits:

• They can’t exceed total tuition and mandatory academic fees.
• They can’t cover tuition or fees from audited courses.
• They can’t cover any other costs, such as campus housing or meal plan charges.
• For 2026-27, your total combined financial aid from all sources can't exceed your 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ Cost of Attendance Budget, or $32,200, whichever is less.
• For September 11 attack victims, your combined Conroy scholarship and all other 9/11 scholarships you receive from any other sources can’t exceed the limits in the bullet above.
• Statewide, there’s a 15 student per year cap for student veterans with a 25% or greater disability.

Questions

For questions contact the 91Ó°ÊÓÆƽâ°æ Financial Aid Office, Scholarship Unit at 410-704-4634 or scholarship AT_TOWSON.