Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education

Apply for KY Academic Common Market

Eligibility

To be eligible for Academic Common Market, you must:

If you meet all requirements for the ACM, you can also apply your KEES money toward your tuition. For questions concerning KEES, such as balance, award amounts and GPA requirements, visit the KHEAA website or contact the KEES coordinator at 502-696-7397.

Effective immediately: University of Tennessee – Knoxville (UTK) is no longer participating in the ACM at the undergraduate level.  ACM access is limited to graduate programs only.

All students currently enrolled in undergraduate degrees at UTK via the ACM program are grandfathered in until they graduate. However, students cannot stop out or change majors with the expectation that they can return to the same undergraduate degree, as undergraduate degrees are no longer ACM eligible at UTK.

Process

  1. Investigate your options. SREB has a searchable database: https://home.sreb.org/acm/choosestate.aspx. 
  2. Make sure the program is approved for ACM in Kentucky. The Council has a list of programs that have already been denied. Check the list before continuing on to the next step. If you have questions, contact acmhelp@ky.gov.
  3. Apply to the school and the program that you are interested in. Once accepted into the program, you will need to submit a copy of your acceptance letter from the institution with your Kentucky Residency Determination application. 
  4. Make electronic copies of your most recent KY tax returns to show residency. If you are a dependent of your parents, you will need their tax forms. If you are independent, you will need your own.
    (Note: The financial information disclosed on your tax forms does not affect your eligibility. These forms are used to prove a permanent address in Kentucky. )
  5. Go to the ACM application portal to set up your account, complete the application and upload your documents..
    ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE COMPLETE AND CONTAIN THE NECESSARY DOCUMENTATION UPON SUBMISSION. Partial applications will not be processed.
  6. If you experience problems with the ACM portal, please contact us.

Once you have submitted all required documentation, it can take up to six weeks for ACM staff to process it.

Participating schools and programs

You can search for participating institutions and approved programs at the Southern Regional Education Board’s website, which coordinates the program for participating states.

For additional information on exclusions and special conditions for ACM states and institutions, view the state and institutional notes. 

If your program of interest is not part of the ACM inventory of approved programs for Kentucky residents, but is offered by a participating out-of-state institution, you can request a program review. Students must be accepted to any non-eligible program prior to requesting a program review for inclusion in ACM. 

To be eligible for the ACM, a program's curriculum must be at least 50 percent unique from any program offered at Kentucky's public universities; uniqueness is determined through a program review process (course-by-course comparison of curriculum in two different programs), which may take six or more weeks to complete. 

A program is considered denied if it is at least 50 percent similar to an existing program at a Kentucky public institution, or if the ACM institution has chosen not to offer the program through ACM. (View the inventory of denied programs.)

Questions about KEES money - Please contact the KHEAA coordinator: kees@kheaa.com or 502-696-7397.

Report issues or ask questions via our form or call the Council at 502-573-1555 (M-F, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. ET).
Note: the Council is closed on most federal holidays.

Last Updated: 9/24/2024