What Colleges Give the Most Merit Scholarships?

Duke University gives the largest average merit award at $91,953, followed by Rhode Island School of Design at $62,688 and Washington and Lee at $62,110. But fewer than 15% of no-need freshmen at those colleges get merit. Kalamazoo College awards $52,888, and every no-need freshman receives it.

This illustrates the two things that vary across merit awards: how large they are and how likely you are to receive one. The largest awards go to a small fraction of students, while others are nearly automatic at lower amounts. Private colleges tend to give far larger merit awards than public schools, and every school on the three lists below is private.

To find them, we used our Road2College Insights tool and ranked colleges by the amount of merit aid they gave to freshmen with no financial need, as determined by the college.

Road2College Insights has a lot of data on merit awards that can help you build a smart college list. The data in the first two tables below comes from the Common Data Set, which Insights breaks down for users. The third table comes from a different source: the actual aid offers families share with us in our Compare College Offers tool.

Do Colleges Automatically Consider You for Merit Scholarships?

At most colleges that award merit, yes. Your admission application, such as the Common App, serves as the scholarship application, and any award arrives with your admission decision or in a financial aid award letter a few weeks later.

Some colleges require a separate application or nomination, often with an essay, a recommendation, or an earlier deadline. That is more common for the largest awards, so check each college’s scholarship page before you apply.

Read the “Odds of Receiving It” column before you get attached to a dollar amount. A large average award and a real chance of getting it are two different things. Washington and Lee’s average award is $62,110, but only 14% of freshmen without need receive merit. Knox College gives $49,400 on average, and every single freshman without need receives something. We flag schools as a lottery ticket when fewer than 15% of no-need freshmen get merit aid, competitive between 15% and 89%, and reliable at 90% and above. The lottery ticket schools are worth applying to if your student is a strong fit. They are not worth building a financial plan around.

Road2College Insights can help you discover schools that are generous with merit scholarships and fit the criteria most important to your student. You’ll not only save precious time, but your student will avoid the heartache of applying to schools they aren’t likely to get into or can’t afford to attend. Create a free trial R2C Insights account here.

For the second chart, we selected colleges giving the most merit scholarships to at least half of freshmen without financial need. Also, keep in mind that much of this aid is renewable in subsequent years.

Top 30 Colleges for Merit Aid to at Least 50% of Freshman Without Need

Compare your student’s scores to the 75th percentile columns. At or above them, merit at these colleges moves from possible to likely. Most award to more than 90% of freshmen without need, so the question is less whether your student gets an offer than how large it is. Awards here run smaller than the top of the first table, but they are the ones you can plan around.

Top 30 Colleges by Merit Awards That Families Reported to Road2College

Families reported larger awards than the published averages at all 30 colleges. The typical gap is about $6,500, and at Drexel, Clark, Merrimack, and Wheaton it runs past $11,000.

Read this table alongside the first two rather than instead of them. A published average reflects a full freshman class. These numbers reflect 12 to 47 offers per college, from families like yours. Add your own offers to Compare College Offers, and next year’s families will see them here.

Public universities were eligible for this ranking, and none reached the top 30. The University of Alabama leads them at $25,925 across 15 reported offers, followed by the University of Vermont at $20,826 across 46. Publics award smaller amounts against lower published prices.

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