With the cost of college tuition rising each year, every financial aid dollar is valuable to students. Thursday, the University of Great Falls and MSU Great Falls received more money to pass onto students.

The student assistance foundation (SAF) awards ACE$$ grants to all Montana post-secondary schools each year, based on enrollment.

SAF Outreach Manager Breanna Doseth says the schools can distribute the funds however they want, but they usually go to students already receiving scholarships, grants and student loans.

Doseth added, “But it doesn't quite equal up to everything they need to pay, so they use that just to kind of fill in so they don't have to take out any more loan monies or have to come up with a larger chunk at the end."

The group gave UGF more than $19,000, and MSU Great Falls received nearly 35,000. Officials with the MSU Great Falls financial aid office say that money will help about 50 students this school year alone, with individual awards ranging from $200 to $1,500.