We are living in a golden age of merit aid for college. While the average college tuition is over 250% higher now than it was 30 years ago, scholarship requirements are much more frequently quantifiable and transparently posted via merit aid grids: tables relating students combined GPA, SAT or ACT scores, and a scholarship to match.
Hundreds of colleges use merit aid grids to evaluate students based on their academic performance, and many update their grids on an annual basis to entice applicants with the kind of discounted prices they can expect. Most merit aid grids on the site are renewable annually, provided a student meets the required criteria, while others may require an additional application.
We recommend that students and families use merit aid grids to identify schools where they are likely to receive a meaningful financial package. Merit aid scholarships do not need to be ‘paid back’ to the university, thus potentially saving students and their families tens of thousands of dollars per year of their undergraduate career.
Learn more about how your test scores impact your potential scholarships at
meritaidgrids.com!
And please pay it forward! If you know of a merit aid grid we didn’t catch in our searches, please feel free to contribute by submitting a new one! Over 10 people have submitted new ones since we launched the site in October 2024!