Editor’s Note: This originally appeared as a post in our private Facebook group called Paying for College 101. Retired admissions director and author Peter Pitts is a frequent group contributor, and we publish some of his posts as articles to benefit a wider audience. He’s an advocate of the value of small colleges.

Does your student plan to transfer from a community college?

Students who stay home for their first years to earn their AA degree and then transfer to a 4-year college sometimes feel shortchanged—why do colleges give the larger scholarships to students who begin as freshmen? And, furthermore, why is it so hard to find information about transfer merit scholarships on college websites?

I did research on hundreds of websites and have developed a list of 70 colleges that I think you might want to check out.

A Few Caveats Before You Begin

1. After reading through college websites, it appears that the range of scholarships for transfer students at most colleges appears to be a big secret! College websites (on the whole) are not user-friendly in this regard. How families navigate these websites is beyond me…I’ve been in higher education for almost 50 years, and it has been troublesome even for me!
2. I had to resort to AI to find some of my data, and, as we all know, AI is not perfect. AI struggled with the distinction between scholarships for freshmen and scholarships for transfer students.
3. Transfer scholarships depend on many factors. It is not just the student’s GPA. Some scholarships require a GPA of 2.0, others 2.5, and there are even some that require a 3.5. Most have stipulations about how many hours a student can transfer. Some depend on whether they were members of Phi Theta Kappa at their previous college. Some give more if the student lives on campus. Some give more if they enter with an AA. Some give scholarships to all; some are highly selective. Some look at both high school and college grades (and require an interview) for their highest awards. It is really a mixed bag.
4. For the few that indicate they offer full tuition scholarships, I know that these colleges are very selective about these kinds of scholarships and often will not even offer them every year.
5. All transfer scholarship programs appear to change a bit from year to year, even more than do freshman programs. Transfer scholarship programs tend to be less generous, and they appear to have less transparency (i.e., you will find charts on websites for freshmen to determine their scholarships, but there are very few colleges publishing charts to determine scholarship amounts for transfer students)
6. How did I choose my colleges to investigate? I selected this list of colleges based on their financial stability (per 2026 Forbes grades) and the overall grades that Niche has awarded. There are probably hundreds of other colleges that also offer great transfer merit aid, but these were the ones I selected.

Since scholarship amounts are relative to the cost of the college, I actually calculated the approximate percentage of tuition that the top scholarship will cover. 18 of the 70 colleges award their top candidates somewhere between 75% and 100% of their tuition. The other 52 award somewhere between 50% and 74% of their tuition to their top candidates. There was usually a range depending on GPA and other factors. Minimum amounts vary greatly.

Therefore, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of my list. Let me just say that this list of 70 colleges appears to be “at least a good place to start” in looking for transfer scholarships at small private colleges. Your best course of action is to call the transfer admissions counselor at your college choices for up-to-date information.

Most Generous Transfer Merit Scholarships

These 18 colleges award their top candidates somewhere between 75% and 100% of their tuition.

Illinois

• Knox College
• Principia College
• Monmouth College

Indiana

• Franklin College

Iowa

• Luther College

Kentucky

• University of the Cumberlands

Mississippi

• Millsaps College

New York

• Alfred University

North Carolina

• Catawba College

Ohio

• Ohio Wesleyan University

Oklahoma

• University of Tulsa

Pennsylvania

• Westminster College
• Susquehanna University
• Lycoming College
• Allegheny College

Tennessee

• Rhodes College

Washington, D.C.

• Trinity Washington University

Michigan

• Kalamazoo College

Also Generous Transfer Merit Scholarships

These 52 colleges award somewhere between 50% and 74% of their tuition to their top candidates.

Arkansas

• Hendrix College

Georgia

• Berry College
• Young Harris College
• Covenant College

Illinois

• Augustana College
• Elmhurst University
• Illinois College

Indiana

• Saint Mary’s College
• Earlham College
• Wabash College
• DePauw University

Iowa

• University of Dubuque
• Saint Ambrose University
• Drake University

Kansas

• McPherson College

Kentucky

• Centre College
• Transylvania University

Maryland

• Hood College
• McDaniel College

Massachusetts

• Gordon College
• Bay Path University

Michigan

• Calvin University

Minnesota

• College of St. Benedict
• Hamline University
• Mnpls College of Art & Design
• Concordia College–Moorhead
• Saint Catherine University
• St. Olaf College

Missouri

• Cottey College

Montana

• Carroll College

Nebraska

• Doane University

Ohio

• College of Wooster
• John Carroll University
• University of Mount Union
• Otterbein University

Oregon

• Linfield University

Pennsylvania

• Washington & Jefferson College
• Saint Vincent College
• Mount Aloysius College

Tennessee

• Johnson University

Texas

• Austin College
• Wayland Baptist University
• St. Mary’s University
• Southwestern University
• Hardin-Simmons University

Vermont

• Norwich University

Virginia

• Hampden-Sydney College
• Hollins University
• Randolph-Macon College

West Virginia

• West Virginia Wesleyan College

Wisconsin

• Lawrence University
• Saint Norbert College

A Final Note

Your best course of action is to call the transfer admissions counselor at your college choices for up-to-date information.