Merit Aid Report 2026: What Families Paid

By Debbie Schwartz, Founder, Road2College · Published October 2026 · Data: 2026–27 academic year

Among families in the Road2College community who received merit aid for the 2026–27 school year, the average award was $23,956, up from $21,666 the year before. Liberal arts colleges were the most generous, averaging $37,987. And contrary to what many parents assume, merit awards were nearly identical across every income level.

Why we built this report

Every year, thousands of families in our community submit their real financial aid offers through our Compare College Offers tool. They do it to help other families, and to see how their own offers compare.

Collected year after year, that data now tells a story no college ranking, government dataset, or net price calculator can: what families like yours actually received. This is the first time we’ve published a full analysis of it.

The data is self-reported, and our methodology is explained at the end of this report. School-level rankings require a minimum sample so that every figure reflects a meaningful number of families, not an outlier.

1. Merit aid by school type

Not all schools use merit aid the same way. Knowing how generosity varies by school type is one of the most useful things a family can understand before building a college list.

All merit figures are averages among families who received merit aid. Net cost = average cost of attendance minus average merit award. Public university costs may include out-of-state rates for some families. Median awards: $39,000 at liberal arts colleges and $30,000 at doctoral and master’s universities.

Within research universities, private schools gave an average of $30,837 in merit, more than double the $13,155 average at public research universities. The trade-off is a much higher starting price: $86,401 vs. $48,340. Whether merit closes that gap depends on the specific school and on how your student’s academic profile compares with its typical admitted student.

2. Year over year: merit awards are growing

Average merit awards increased for every school type between the class of 2025 and the class of 2026.

Averages among families who received merit aid.

Liberal arts colleges saw the largest increase, followed by doctoral and master’s universities. The consistent upward trend suggests colleges are competing harder for the students they want to enroll, and using merit dollars to do it.

3. Merit aid and family income

A common assumption is that colleges quietly reduce merit aid for higher-income families. Our data tells a different story.

Income is self-reported in bands. Families earning under $75k are underrepresented, likely because lower-income families typically qualify for need-based aid and focus their research there.

The practical takeaway: if your family earns $100k or more, your income alone is unlikely to change the merit award your student receives. What matters far more is where your student applies and how their academic profile compares with each school’s typical admitted student.

One caveat: lower-income families often receive need-based grants instead of, or in addition to, merit aid. Their total grant aid may be equal to or larger than merit awards. It simply flows through a channel this report doesn’t measure.

4. Test scores, GPA, and merit

Families often ask whether a higher SAT or ACT score translates into more merit aid. Here’s what our data shows. The median SAT score among families who submitted scores was 1,390, the median GPA was 3.89, and about 16% of offers went to students who applied test optional.

SAT score vs. average merit award

Among offers that included merit aid. ACT scores converted to SAT equivalents using standard concordance tables.

Higher scores were associated with larger awards, but the gains weren’t even. The biggest jump came between the 1100s and the 1200s, about $1,700. Moving from the 1300s to the 1400s added roughly $1,400 a year, or about $5,500 over four years if the award is renewed. For a student weighing a retake, that’s a real financial case.

Do test-optional applicants get less merit aid?

Test-optional applicants in our data received $1,542 more in merit aid on average. That’s a striking result, but it doesn’t mean going test optional earns more merit. Test-optional students may have applied to a different mix of schools, or had stronger GPAs relative to those schools, and our data can’t separate those effects. The safest reading: if a score strengthens your student’s application, submit it. If it doesn’t, our data shows no evidence that withholding it hurts merit outcomes.

GPA and merit aid

Self-reported GPA on a 4.0 scale; GPAs above 5.0 were recalculated proportionally. Students below 3.0 (29 offers) are excluded due to small sample size.

Students with a 4.0+ GPA received the highest average merit, nearly $3,000 more than students in the 3.0 to 3.49 range.

5. The most generous schools for merit aid

Ranked by average merit award among families who received merit aid, with at least 10 reported merit offers per school for 2026–27. Net cost = average cost of attendance minus average merit award.

Liberal arts colleges

Doctoral & master’s universities

Research universities (R1 & R2)

All schools above are private. The University of Alabama ranked 14th with an average merit award of $29,372, the highest of any public research university, showing that some public universities use merit aggressively to attract out-of-state students.

6. The best net cost after merit aid

This list ranks schools by the lowest average net cost after merit across all school types, public and private, with at least 10 reported merit offers. For most families, this is the number that matters most.

Cost of attendance is as reported by families. For public universities, it reflects a mix of in-state and out-of-state families, so in-state students will generally pay less and out-of-state students more than the net cost shown.

7. What to do with this information

1. Don’t build your list around sticker price. The schools giving the most merit are often not the ones with the lowest published cost. Families who rule out private colleges based on sticker price may be ruling out schools that would have cost less after merit.

2. Consider at least one liberal arts college. They gave the largest average awards of any school type, and three of them made our top 20 for lowest net cost.

3. Look at what your specific schools offer, not just averages. Your student’s GPA, test scores, intended major, and application round all affect the actual offer. Averages are a starting point, not a prediction.

4. If a school offered less than its peers, you may have grounds to ask for more. Financial aid offices expect families to engage. Knowing what other families received gives you a foundation for a professional, documented request for reconsideration.

5. Plan for the new federal borrowing limits. Starting July 1, 2026, new Parent PLUS loans are capped at $20,000 per year and $65,000 total per student. Choosing schools where merit closes more of the gap matters more than ever.

Frequently asked questions