Check Alice Lloyd free in 30 seconds. Then see how it ranks against the rest of your list.
The award collection
Published scholarships
These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.
Where does your student land?
Appalachian Leaders College Scholarship (Tuition Guarantee)Full tuitionNot automaticRenewable
Published awardOther selection criteria
Appalachian Leaders College Scholarship (Tuition Guarantee)
Full tuition
Published coverage or packageNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Start with the award’s published eligibility.
RenewableCheck the conditions
Open award details for Appalachian Leaders College Scholarship (Tuition Guarantee)
Who qualifies
Resident of the 108-county central Appalachian service area, regardless of income; eligible for admission; minimum 12 core curriculum credits. Tuition is met by a combination of grants, scholarships, the REQUIRED Student Work Program, and the donor-funded Alice Lloyd College grant that 'guarantees that the remaining balance is covered.'
How to keep it
Renewable for 10 semesters upon maintaining satisfactory progress toward completion of a degree.
Worth knowing
Automatic by service-area residency and admission (not by GPA/test stats). Tuition only — food, housing, and the matriculation fee remain the student's responsibility (resident: $5,700/semester before Pell, loans, and/or outside scholarships; commuter: $2,370/semester).
Honors Program — Presidential ScholarshipFull cost of education (tuition, food, housing, fees, and books)Not automaticRenewable
Published awardOther selection criteria
Honors Program — Presidential Scholarship
Full cost of education (tuition, food, housing, fees, and books)
Published coverage or packageNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.
GPA
Minimum 3.50 core GPA
SAT
Minimum 1210
ACT
Minimum 25
RenewableCheck the conditions
Open award details for Honors Program — Presidential Scholarship
Who qualifies
Resident of the 108-county service area; exemplary character consistent with traditional Christian values; leadership, work ethic, community service. Application packet: admission application, transcript, official scores, housing/commuter form and deposit, completed interview, two academic recommendation letters, two character-based recommendation letters, personal statement, completed FAFSA. All documents due to Admissions by April 1.
How to keep it
Renewal terms not stated on the page; both Honors scholarships extend assistance into graduate/professional school via the Gatton Winston Scholars Program if its requirements are met.
Worth knowing
This is ALC's true full ride. Competitive ('select students').
Honors Program — Dean's Distinguished Scholarship$1,500 per year (in addition to the Appalachian Leaders Scholarship)Not automaticRenewable
Published awardOther selection criteria
Honors Program — Dean's Distinguished Scholarship
$1,500 per year (in addition to the Appalachian Leaders Scholarship)
Published award termsNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.
GPA
Minimum 3.50 core GPA
SAT
Minimum 1210
ACT
Minimum 25
RenewableCheck the conditions
Open award details for Honors Program — Dean's Distinguished Scholarship
Who qualifies
Same Honors Program criteria and April 1 document deadline as the Presidential Scholarship.
How to keep it
Renewal terms not stated; includes Gatton Winston Scholars graduate/professional continuation if requirements are met.
Worth knowing
Stacks on top of the tuition guarantee (helps with food/housing/fees).
Geddes GPA Scholarship$500 per year ($250/semester)AutomaticRenewable
Published awardAcademic thresholds
Geddes GPA Scholarship
$500 per year ($250/semester)
Published award termsAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
GPA
3.0 cumulative (high school GPA for incoming students, from the final transcript; ALC GPA for current students)
RenewableCheck the conditions
Open award details for Geddes GPA Scholarship
Who qualifies
Incoming and current ALC students.
How to keep it
Renewed on an annual basis as long as Satisfactory Academic Progress is maintained; for current students, awarded after spring SAP processing if cumulative ALC GPA is at least 3.00.
Worth knowing
CANNOT be stacked with other institutional scholarships (Performance Scholarship, ALC Honors Program scholarships, or athletic scholarships). If eligible for both Geddes and Performance, the Performance Scholarship is the default award.
Performance Scholarship$500 per year ($250/semester)Not automaticRenewable
Published awardOther selection criteria
Performance Scholarship
$500 per year ($250/semester)
Published award termsNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Start with the award’s published eligibility.
RenewableCheck the conditions
Open award details for Performance Scholarship
Who qualifies
Participation in listed athletics/activities: Archery, Baseball, Basketball (M/W), Cheerleading, Cross Country, eSports, Golf, Soccer (M/W), Softball, Track and Field, Volleyball, Voices of Appalachia.
How to keep it
Renewed by semester dependent on continued participation and Satisfactory Academic Progress.
Worth knowing
Cannot be stacked with Geddes GPA, Honors Program, or other athletic scholarships; it is the default when a student qualifies for both Geddes and Performance.
Lights up against Alice Lloyd's published cutoffs. Not an award offer; confirm with the financial aid office. Award terms and residency rules change; some awards differ for in-state and out-of-state students. Always confirm at the school’s source page.
This page covers one school.
Your playbook does this for every school on your list, sorted by what you’d pay.
Ready in under 10 minutes. 30-day money-back guarantee.
“it told me what to ask and what the renewal GPA looked like, which I was not going to find on my own”Melissa
What makes Alice Lloyd different
Alice Lloyd, one of ten federal work colleges, guarantees $0 out-of-pocket TUITION for every admitted student from its 108-county central Appalachian service area — but students still owe roughly $5,700/semester for food, housing, and the matriculation fee, and everyone works a required campus job.
Merit tiers51 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team
More than one award path
Separate the two paths.
Some awards use published academic thresholds. Others have different selection criteria. A score chart does not describe every award at this school.
Match the published criteria
Use all requirements together, including residency and the entering class.
Check the application dates
Confirm the current admission and scholarship deadlines directly with the school.
Know what happens next year
Check renewal, credit requirements and how other aid affects the award.
The fine print / Three questions to carry forward
Before you count on it.
Does it apply to us? Confirm the entering year, residency and every eligibility condition.
Can we keep it? Check renewal GPA, credits and how long the award lasts.
Can we combine it? Ask how outside scholarships and other school awards change the offer.
A printable research summary, source links and room for your questions.
See what could change an award+
What families often miss
The Tuition Guarantee page itemizes the resident student's per-semester responsibility before Pell/loans/outside scholarships: Food $2,232 + Housing $2,398 + Matriculation Fee $1,070 = $5,700 per semester (commuters: $2,370). 'Getting your education at Alice Lloyd College is not free.'
ALC is one of only ten work colleges in the nation; tuition is met partly 'by participation in the required Student Work Program.' Every student works — this is a condition of the funding model, not an optional job.
It is for 'residents of 108 central Appalachian counties... who are eligible for admission' with at least 12 core curriculum credits. Students from outside the service area are not covered by the Appalachian Leaders Scholarship.
Both pages state these 'cannot be stacked with other institutional scholarships,' and when a student qualifies for both, 'the respective Performance Scholarship will be the default scholarship award granted.'
The full-ride Presidential and $1,500 Dean's Distinguished require ALL documents (interview, four recommendation letters, personal statement, FAFSA, deposit) at Admissions by April 1.
The Appalachian Leaders Scholarship is 'renewable for 10 semesters upon maintaining satisfactory progress toward completion of a degree' — stalling on progress risks the award.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Students from the 108-county central Appalachian service area, regardless of income — and within that group, high achievers (25 ACT / 3.5 GPA) who can win the full-cost Honors Presidential Scholarship by the April 1 deadline.
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Alice Lloyd, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Alice Lloyd, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$17,444
$30,001–$48,000
$16,447
$48,001–$75,000
$17,715
$75,001–$110,000
$21,757
$110,001+
$19,349
All income levels (average)
$18,600
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Total cost of attendance (sticker), AY 2021-22
$31,200
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$13,960
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$18,600
That works out to an average 40% discount off the sticker price above — both figures come from the same federal AY 2021-22 Scorecard report, not a number the school itself published.
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
39%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
57%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$19,599 (~$208/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$40,573
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
65%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
45%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Outside scholarships only trigger an aid adjustment if total aid would exceed the cost of attendance (or the student's aid eligibility cap); below that ceiling, awards are not displaced.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): I received an outside scholarship, should I report that to the Financial Aid Office? Yes. If you are receiving any kind of financial aid from a church, business, etc… you must report the scholarship (i.e.: WYMT scholarship) to the Financial Aid Office. ... Federal, State, and Institutional aid cannot exceed the student cost of attendance. If necessary, funds awarded by Alice Lloyd College will be reduced or eliminated to stay within these guidelines. Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: The tuition guarantee is last-dollar: federal/state grants (Pell, KTG, KEES), endowed scholarships, and required student work apply to tuition first, and the donor-funded ALC grant 'guarantees that the remaining balance is covered.' The small institutional awards ($500 Geddes / $500 Performance) cannot be stacked with each other, with Honors scholarships, or with athletic scholarships. (per https://alc.edu/admissions/financial-aid/appalachian-leaders-college-scholarship/)
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
AmountVariesEligibilityStudents from the 108-county service area; awarded annually per donor criteria
Applied directly toward the cost of education as part of the tuition guarantee funding; full list on the Endowed Scholarships page (not opened this session).
AmountVaries (amounts not published on ALC's page)EligibilityKentucky residents via KHEAA; applied directly to student accounts as part of the tuition guarantee funding
ALC maintains a 'KEES On Track to Graduate Policy' page.
The Honors Program (full-cost Presidential and Dean's Distinguished) requires all documents at the Admissions Office by April 1 (no year stated on the page). The tuition guarantee itself has no separate application — it comes with admission for service-area residents, with FAFSA-driven grants applied first.
Is Alice Lloyd really free?
Tuition is $0 out-of-pocket for admitted students from the 108-county service area. But living costs are not: residents owe $5,700/semester (food $2,232, housing $2,398, matriculation fee $1,070) before Pell, loans, and outside scholarships, and all students work in the required Student Work Program.
What if I'm not from the 108-county service area?
The Appalachian Leaders Scholarship is limited to service-area residents. The pages opened do not state merit terms for out-of-area students — ask the Financial Aid Office directly.
Can I get more than the tuition guarantee?
Yes: the Honors Presidential covers the full cost of education (tuition, food, housing, fees, books) and the Dean's Distinguished adds $1,500/year on top of the tuition guarantee — both require a 25 ACT/1210 SAT, 3.5 core GPA, service-area residency, and the April 1 application. Smaller adds: $500 Geddes (3.0 GPA) or $500 Performance (team/activity participation) — one, not both.
Do outside scholarships hurt my package?
The page says Pell is applied to food, housing, and fees, and 'Direct loans and outside scholarships may also be applied to these charges' — i.e., outside money can reduce what you owe for living costs. Confirm with the aid office how an outside award interacts with the ALC grant.
See sources and other schools+
How Alice Lloyd compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Alice Lloyd is in a recognizable cluster (235 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Alice Lloyd is one of them. The cohort minority (84 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
Sources used on this page
Every claim is checked against Alice Lloyd’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
